


Valentine's Day Reboot

by HufflepuffLovesPizza



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Amy Acker in the Bill Murray role, AmySarahRomCom, F/F, Fluff, Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day gay remake, One psychic squirrel, Sarah Shahi in the Andie MacDowell role, Slight Edge Of Tomorrow Fusion, Slightly Smutty, Some Character Death Repeating, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day repeating, a cat likes to sleep on Root's chest, maybe humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-09-24 01:22:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9693638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HufflepuffLovesPizza/pseuds/HufflepuffLovesPizza
Summary: A Groundhog Day/Edge Of Tomorrow day repeating story with the Person of Interest gang.





	1. First Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [T_Ninja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/T_Ninja/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HUGE Thanks to T_Ninja for support and encouraging me to write this silly gay remake. And big thanks to her AMAZING editing/proofreading skills! As horrible, incoherent mess this thing is, it was WAY worse before she added some of her awesome magic. Endless thanks and props to her!! 
> 
> AU after Mors Praematura - Root escaped the faraday cage pretty quickly. So she’s not really part of the team yet, she’s still got a little ‘bad code’ Root in her.

Root wasn't even paying attention to the fact that it was Friday the 13th on the wintery February day, let alone that tomorrow was the 14th, which was the Hallmarkiest of all silly ass ‘holidays.’ The hacker didn’t give the fake, stupid ‘holiday’ a second thought as she drove a stolen car into a small town called Maple. She was focused on acquiring and destroying whatever Samaritan was manufacturing out of a fake company called Carrow set up in Maple located in picturesque upstate of New York. The Machine had informed her that Samaritan was moving their first shipment this weekend and that she needed to stop it, by any means necessary. It had been extremely difficult getting any scoop on what Samaritan was cooking up, even for the Machine; no specifics had been given. Root had her own theories that ran from neurotransmitters to tracking implants to some deadly code that could devastate the populace. 

As she continued to drive through the small town, Root realized her own bad timing of being in Maple on Valentine’s Day; the small town was kind of famous for the cheesy romantic fake holiday. The town hosted a yearly festival that drew massive crowds to watch a supposedly psychic squirrel reveal whether couples were everlasting or more of a control+alt+delete thing. The hacker thought this was going to be a fairly fun task with a very beneficial outcome and if she could disrupt the lame Valentine Festival at the same time, even better. 

She rolled her eyes when she got to Maple’s town square and saw the overflowing crowds of people everywhere and she was even more unhappy when she recognized some familiar faces sniffing around the town that she knew were definitely not interested in romance or having a large rodent guess their love outcomes. She clocked the whole gang: Finch, Shaw, the detective and the helper monkey. They were checking out the town square where several news crews had set up shop to document the stupid squirrel spectacle. She knew they were not going to be happy with her since she escaped Harold’s faraday cage and Stoneridge Facility and sort of kidnapped Shaw. She didn’t see the point in going along with the cage anymore; there was too much work to be done and the Machine had told her to enlist Shaw, so really it wasn’t her fault. And the petite primary asset benefited from the impromptu kidnapping. In fact, Root remembered quite fondly that it benefited both of them for nearly ten hours while waiting at the CIA safe house. Her insides and face felt very warm thinking of those intense ten hours with Shaw in the CIA safe house. 

The Machine set her up with the alias of Sam Connors, a news reporter from Dallas covering the Valentine festival. This would give her close proximity to the town and hopefully the fake corporation she figured she was here to destroy and whatever other possible horrors Samaritan was planning to roll out to the world. 

As soon as Root parked her car, she knew she couldn’t hide from Harold and his teamsters so she walked over to where they were pretending to set up their fake news crew - obviously they were scoping out the town like she was. The detective was busy messing with the camera while Reese, sporting a fake goatee, surveyed the area and Shaw flipped through pages on a clipboard. Harold sat in the imposter news van out of everyone’s sight, typing away on his laptop. 

“Hey kids,” Root said with a rather large amount of disdain in her voice as she slowly sauntered up to the team. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” snapped Shaw when she looked up, surprised to see the psycho hacker. 

“Oh geesh, not this Looney Tune,” Fusco groaned with an annoyed look on his face. 

Reese had a big grimace on his face, the fake goatee didn’t hide it.

“Aren’t y’all a friendly bunch,” Root drawled out in her native Texan accent, really accentuating some words while she approached the group slowly with both hands up in the air holding her press badge in one and in the other hand holding a white handkerchief. “You can shoot me again, however, I don’t think She would like it.” She stared intensely into Shaw’s eyes. 

Shaw reached and snatched the white handkerchief out of Root’s hand roughly and threw it on the ground. 

“Who’s She?” asked a very confused Fusco, turning to look at Shaw and Reese with a confused face. 

Finch walked over as quickly as he could; he wanted to stop the conversation immediately, for fear of anyone overhearing it. “Ms. Groves, what is your business here?” Too many people were already involved and it was getting too dangerous. 

“Needed some sun after all my enclosure recently. And heard there was a festival going on here in Maple. She wanted me to come check it out,” Root looked around the town square, then glared at Finch. “And it looks like She hired me as your on-air talent.” 

“Who does the psycho chick keep referring to?” asked a still confused Fusco. 

“Whatever you’re up to Root, you better stay out of our way and far away from Harold,” said Reese, ignoring Fusco’s question while taking a step to stand close to Finch in a protective stance. 

“Maybe I’m just here to have the large rodent predict my romantic life,” Root stared hard at Shaw, who looked away quickly and almost appeared flustered. The hacker couldn’t help a smirk that spread across her face, clearly Shaw still remembered their time in the CIA safe house; maybe this day in Maple wasn’t going to be so bad after all. 

Fusco seeing a cue, started to explain the town festival even though nobody looked interested. 

“Her name is Sammy. It’s kinda cute, you give her a walnut then she chooses which hole to put it in. One hole means it’s true love, the other you’re not meant to be. She’s never been wrong,” the detective had a hint of sadness in his last few words. “She got mine right.”

“Sammy the wonder squirrel predicted your divorce?” asked a very skeptical Shaw with a slight smirk on her face. 

“Yeah, and she was cheaper than the marriage counselor we tried,” Fusco said as he put the camera up on his shoulder. 

Reese looked around the town at all the people, “People seem to really love Valentine’s Day,” he said in a deadpan tone unimpressed. 

“People like blood sausage too, people are morons,” Root said in a dry, cold tone.

“Hey, I like blood sausage,” Fusco said as he pointed the camera at Root, who stared him down. 

“Me too,” added Shaw, she looked back down at her clipboard. 

“Ms. Groves, may I speak to you privately?” Finch ushered Root over to the undercover fake news van. 

When they are out earshot as much as possible from the rest - most importantly Fusco - Finch spoke again, “What does the Machine have you doing here?” 

“She’s being a bit cryptic, all I know something is going to happen tomorrow at that factory on the outskirts of town,” Root offered without any snarky attitude. 

“Carrow. I suspected as much,” Finch had a serious look on his face. “Samaritan is manufacturing something out there.”

“She hasn’t told me yet,” Root looked at Finch to gauge his response.

Finch stared at Root cautiously. “I’m not entirely convinced that we should be working together.” 

“Wasn’t planning on it Harry. Just wanted to say Hi so one of your teamsters doesn’t shoot or lock me up in a cage - again. We can work together without working together like we did with Greenfield and Sloan,” Root smiled her most condescending charming smiles to Finch. 

“I agree, Ms. Groves,” Finch said watching Root closely. 

“Although, I wouldn't mind taking Shaw again,” Root bit her bottom lip and stole a glance at her favorite primary asset. Taking Shaw again in more ways than one, many ways.

“Ms. Shaw is needed here,” Finch said quickly with a slightly shaky voice to Root.

“Pity, her loss.” Root started to walk away from the van and added, “Good luck Harold.” 

Root walked past Reese, Shaw and Fusco, “So long, kids.” She continued getting lost in growing crowd of people in the town square as the team watched her disappear. 

*****

The Machine instructed Root she had a reservation at a charming Bed & Breakfast called The Kitty Napper, located in the middle of the small town. It was owned and operated by Mrs. Lancaster, a very sweet and chatty older woman. Mrs. Lancaster looked as if she was straight out of a Rockwell painting with a traditional old timey dress and apron on as she told Root long stories of the four cats that lived in the Kitty Napper. The only note worthy tidbit being from the long-winded spiel is that if one of the cats chose to sleep in your room, it was a good omen. Root made a mental note to lock her door so no furry four legged creatures wandered in or perhaps any Samaritan operatives as well. 

The accommodations of the Kitty Napper were more picturesque than functional, mainly the cast iron claw foot bathtub. Root was not happy when she took a shower and got a heavy flow of ice cold water sprayed all over her, it was like icicles being shot at her from a thousand directions. She screamed while lunging to turn off the showerhead, finally jumping and falling out of the antique bathtub. 

Root spotted Mrs. Lancaster in the hallway walking back to her room after her icy shower.

“Is there not any hot water?” Root asked Mrs. Lancaster in rather snarky tone, she could feel her teeth chattering from the shower that just tried to cryogenically freeze her. 

“Oh, haha. There wouldn’t be today,” Mrs. Lancaster, in her old timey dress and apron, smiled kindly at Root as if everyone knew there wouldn’t be hot water. 

“Of course not. That’s silly,” Root replied back in a fake sweet tone, holding back her high level of irritation. She couldn’t wait to finish this job and get back to the city. 

When Root got back into her room, there was a calico tabby cat laying on her bed. She sighed. She tried for over thirty minutes to get the feline to vacant her room with no success. Root finally gave up and crawled into the other side of the bed. She finally fell asleep pouring over some old building blueprints for the mysterious warehouse of Carrow that she stole from the town courthouse. The Machine wanted her back at the town square bright and early in the morning for her cover, so she would have to see Harold and his misfits one more time before going off to Carrow alone and stopping Samaritan. And most importantly she thought, she had to leave Maple before the Valentine’s carnival started tomorrow afternoon. The carnival sounded worse than facing an army Samaritan agents. 

_**First Day - Valentine's Day**_

Root started getting lulled out of her deep sleep by a pressure she felt on top of her chest, which was incredibly discerning. Then she suddenly heard faint singing, ♫ ‘Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh, no, no’♫, she opened her eyes and looked down at her chest. There, curled up on top of her chest was the calico tabby cat from the night before who appeared to be in a deep sleep and very cozy. 

The voice continued on singing with ♫‘How I'm feeling and my pride is the one to blame, 'Cause I know I don't understand, Just how your love can do what no one else can, Got me looking so crazy right now, your love's got me looking so crazy right now in love...♫’ 

Root struggled to open her eyes wider and realized the 1980’s era clock radio on the nightstand was the culprit of the sounds waking her up. Beyoncé’s ‘Crazy In Love’ faded out and the local morning DJs started talking. Root didn’t know how to wake up or dislodge the cat on her chest. She slowly and gently pushed the cat onto the bed, where it raised up its head with sleepy eyes and watched her, throwing some shade at her for waking her up. She left the clock radio on as she moved to the sink to splash some water on her face. 

“Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today,” said one of the local morning disc jockeys. 

Then another disc jockey started talking over the disc jockey, “That blizzard! The blizzard! Ah! Oh, well, here's the report! The National Weather Service is calling for a ‘big blizzard thing!’” 

“Yessss, they are. But you know, there's another reason why today is especially exciting,” said the first DJ in a very, loud annoying voice. 

“Especially cold, okay, but the big question on everybody's lips...” said the second DJ while Root rolled her eyes and started getting dressed. 

“On their chapped lips...” replied back the first DJ with annoying laughter. 

“Will Sammy Squirrelly predict more love or heartache on this...” the second DJ took over again. 

Then both DJs said in unison very loudly and excitedly, “VALENTINE’S DAY!” 

Root scoffed at the mention of Valentine’s Day and talked out loud to the Machine, “Really, we had to check out this Samaritan facility on this stupid day in a stupid town that actually celebrates this stupid holiday?” Root walked over to the window to look out. It looked really cold but thankfully it wasn’t snowing. Yet. 

After Root finished dressing and finally figured out how to usher the calico tabby cat out of her room, she headed for the stairs in the bed and breakfast hallway. 

A man stopped her in the hallway, “Off to see the Sammy the s quirrel? Do you think there will be more matches than breakups?” The man was clearly excited about seeing a large rodent speculate on the love lives of strangers. He probably also loved seeing a large rodent predict the weather too. 

“Death or break-up...” Root spun around looked at the man with squinted eyes and a slight grin, “...are the only outcomes to any relationship.” 

The man in the hallway had a slightly shocked and scared expression on his face. 

Root continued on down the stairs and in search of coffee. She spotted a continental type of breakfast set up in the dining area with an assortment of pastries, fruit and coffee. 

“Do you have espresso or cappuccino?” Root asked Mrs. Lancaster, who was all dolled up in a different dress. She spied one of the four cats watching her from a perch on a bookcase. The old-fashioned Mrs. Lancaster looked a bit confused; Root shook her head and headed for the exit. 

“Hope you enjoy the town festivities!” Mrs. Lancaster called after Root. 

“Highly doubtful,” Root replied without looking back.

“Will you be checking out today Ms. Connors?”

“Absolutely,” Root did glance back and put up her best fake smile to Mrs. Lancaster. 

Root walked down the street heading to the town square, she wasn’t sure why the Machine had her going back to the town mainframe. She rounded one corner and a woman seemed to be waving at her from across the street. 

“Kelly! Is that you Kelly?!” Root looked completely confused at the woman, momentarily forgetting her once alias of a Kelly Dyson. 

“Kelly Dyson! I thought that was you!” The woman was all dressed up in conservative business wear and wearing a type of knitted newsboy hat. She ran across the street to catch up with Root, in hopes of getting to talk to her. 

“Hi, how are you doing? Thanks for watching,” Root said quickly, hoping to play off the meeting as a fan encounter since she did have an alias as a news reporter in the town. 

“Hey, hey! Now, don’t tell me you don’t remember me because I sure as heckfire remember you,” the woman said way too excitedly, she sported a grin so wide it almost looked cartoonish. 

“Not ringing any bells,” Root continued walking, trying to move away from the loud, annoying woman. 

She remembered the job now, Kelly Dyson was an alias she used while infiltrating a startup internet company in Milwaukee; she actually hacked people into believing she was woven into their own backstory. She didn’t have to hurt anyone on the job, so it was rather on the boring side of work. 

“Nelly...Ryerson,” the woman said, waiting for a reaction from Root. “‘Needlenose Nelly’? Nelly the Nerd? C’mon, Case Western High. Nelly Ryerson, I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing!” The woman went on despite Root’s blank face. “Nelly Ryerson, got the shingles real bad senior year almost didn’t graduate? Bing, again. Nelly Ryerson, I dated your brother Tommy a couple of times until you told me not to anymore?” Nelly somewhat finished, watching Root’s face for a reaction. 

Now the last part actually did sound like something Root would say or fake alias presumably. So she replied very weakly, “Nelly Ryerson?” 

“Bing!!” Nelly then hugged Root with a huge smile plastered across her face while the hacker cringed and remained stiff in the force embrace. 

“Bing,” Root said very unenthused, she squinted her eyes studying the annoying woman. “Did you take that belly button thing pro?” 

“Haha Bing! You’re funny! Can’t believe I ran into you!” Nelly beamed at Root and shook her head. 

“I can't believe it either,” Root muttered under her breath. 

Nelly was clearly invading Root’s personal space, and the hacker was only willing to allow one person in particular to invade her personal space, and that person was not Nelly Ryerson. And besides, usually it was Root who was the invader of personal spaces, not the other way around. Root kept leaning back to get away from the annoying woman. 

“Whenever I see an opportunity I shoot right at it. I thought that was you!” Root gave Nelly Ryerson a hard stare. “Do you have life insurance? I would love to talk to you about life insurance; I bet you don’t have any. What are you doing for dinner?” Nelly smiled back excitedly at Root, who in return held down an epic eye roll. 

“Something else,” Root walked away quickly and rudely from Nelly, with the annoying woman watching her go. 

Root stepped off the sidewalk and dropped off into a puddle drowning her nice boots in brown icy water. 

“Watch out for that first step, it’s a doozy! Ooohhh!” Nelly yelled at Root. 

When Root finally got to the festival, it was in full swing. People everywhere, singing and dancing. The whole town square looked like an army of cupids threw up everywhere with hearts and overly schmaltzy sentiments, red and pink decorations blanketing the whole area. She saw the team standing around watching the spectacle of the festival. 

“Coca Puffs is back,” Fusco said to Shaw and Reese as Root approached them. Finch poked out his head from the truck to see the hacker walking swiftly towards them. 

“You’re late,” Shaw stormed up to Root looking her up and down before shoving her in front of Fusco’s camera and handing her a microphone. 

“We’ve only got a few minutes to get some coverage,” Shaw then straightened Root’s collar on her shirt under her stylish long winter peacoat, which brought out a genuine smile in the hacker as she leaned into the touch, “and we’ve got to keep up our cover.” Shaw pulled her hand away quickly. 

“A giant leech got me on the way here,” Root said with disgust, “I’m so glad I’ll never have the need for life insurance.” 

Root looked around the town square at the hordes of people gathered early for something like this ridiculous ritual. She rolled her eyes and scoffed. 

Fusco lowered the camera, “Some of these people have been out here all night partying. They sing songs, then when they get cold they go sit by the fire and get warm, then come back out and sing some more.” The detective looked around the townspeople rather fondly. 

“Yeah, they’re hicks Fusco,” Root snapped to Fusco, “Probably most of them are bad code.” 

Fusco returned a scowl to Root; he pulled down the camera to re-situate it on his shoulder for better comfort. 

Root took this opportunity to lean forward to Shaw and whisper, “Sleep okay without me? I bet you tossed and turned all night.” Root displayed a pretty smug look on her face while staring into Shaw’s eyes. 

“You’re incredible,” Shaw said in a snark tone while she rolled her eyes. 

“You do have first hand knowledge of that,” Root replied back with sly smirk, straightening her shoulders and looking directly into the camera. 

“Okay, ready Fusco? Let’s do this, so we can go on to the good stuff,” Shaw looked over to Fusco who nodded to her, then she looked over to Reese who also nodded, “We still got a cover to maintain, so in 3...2...1,” Shaw then pointed to Root to prompt her to start her report. 

“Live from Cupid’s Knob, it’s Sam Connors bringing you the magical spectacle of a squirrel predicting love for the lovelorn.” Root paused and got that look in her eyes that was dangerous and feral, Shaw noticed it and stiffened a bit waiting for what the hacker was going to say next. “The universe is infinite and chaotic and cold, and there has never been a plan. Not until now...” 

Root looked past the camera and stared at Shaw and bit her lip. She really couldn’t help it, being this close to the petite sociopath again brought up and out a lot of stuff in her. Shaw stared back hard at her with a warning look, “...until Sammy the Squirrel. She hasn’t been wrong in over six years, resulting in nearly ten thousand matches made in heaven.” 

Root looked up to the platform where a booth was set up elaborately with too many heart symbols, a large sign and type of plush pillow throne for Sammy the Squirrel. The line waiting for nut loving rodent to pick their love destiny stretched almost all the way out of town. Fusco pointed the camera that way taking it all in, acting like a proper news cameraperson. 

“And nearly just as many matches made in hell,” Root said quietly squinting her eyes to watch the process of a large rodent decide someone’s romantic fate. Shaw caught the snarky comment and pushed down a smirk that was trying to form. 

The head spokesperson and councilperson, Leslie Thompson, for the festival and the town of Maple started speaking on the platform. 

“We are here today to celebrate love! Love, in all its glory and excitement! Sammy is ready, so let’s go!” 

Couples started going up on the platform one by one to get a love prediction from Sammy the Squirrel. And Leslie started announcing their outcomes to the cheering crowd. 

“Earl and Lisa are you ready?” There was a pause as the woman Lisa handed a walnut to the furry rodent. Sammy the squirrel then scurried over to one of holes on the custom wood box and the crowd cheered more. 

“Congratulations! It’s true love for Earl and Lisa!” Leslie shook the happy couple’s hands and then welcomed up the next couple. 

“Welcome, Joe and Cindy! Are you ready?” More cheers from the crowd as the man Joe walked over and handed a nut to Sammy the squirrel and the furry rodent chose a different hole this time. There was silence from the crowd. “Oh, uh,” Leslie stammered a little, “Good luck to both of you in your new journeys in life.” 

A few people in the crowd clapped as the sad couple walked off the stage. Leslie went on going, “Welcome, Tom and George. Are you ready?” The crowd went back to cheering as the hesitant couple gave Sammy the squirrel their nut and watched the rodent chose their destiny hole. “Congratulations you love birds!” Tom and George exhaled a breath of relief as the crowd cheered once again. 

Root shifted from one leg to the other, clearly bored. She eventually pointed to Shaw and Fusco to start rolling the camera. 

“This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the fates of dim witted people’s love lives,” Root drew on her long gaited Texas accent. Fusco gave her a hard stare. “I’m sure the print media can do it more justice.” 

Snow started to fall from the sky, pretty quickly it was getting heavier and heavier. Root handed over the microphone to Shaw with an attempt at a wink. She let her hand linger on Shaw’s arm. 

“Well, this is where we part ways. Until next time kids.” The hacker walked over to Finch in the news van. “Harold, there’s no point of you and your teamsters going out to Carrow, I’ve got this covered. Just pack up and go home. Or stay and go to the carnival.” Root walked away once again while Fusco, Shaw and Reese packed up their news equipment. 

Shaw went over to Finch, “What did she say?” Followed by Reese and Fusco. 

“Ms. Groves said everything was taken care of and for us to head back to the city,” Finch had an extremely worried look on his face. 

“She’s not going to kamikaze into a Decima fortress is she?” asked Shaw while loading the equipment into the van. 

“I do not know Ms. Groves or the Machine’s plans, it is highly possible their plan is risky at best,” Finch furrowed his brow in deep concentration. 

“My guess is, their plan will go pear-shaped and they will need us to save their sorry asses,” Shaw then took some guns hidden away in the van, checked the ammo and readied them to go. She didn’t want to think about one ass in particular. 

“I’m inclined to agree Ms. Shaw. However, we should proceed with extreme caution,” Finch typed away on one of the many computer screens in the high tech van. 

“Extreme caution is always good advice where Root is concerned,” said Reese while also gathering and readying this arsenal. 

By the time Root drove out to Carrow, the snow was falling so heavily that it was hard to see and communication to the Machine was getting weaker and weaker. She hated that at times she could be cut off from the Machine because of simple technical issues like weather or someone purposefully jamming a satellite signal. What she didn’t know was that Finch and his team were following closely behind her to the Carrow facility. 

“What? Can you repeat?” Root couldn’t hear the Machine; she only heard fragments of the computer-augmented voice. “Can you verify through text?” There was silence and no texts were coming through. 

Root snuck into the facility by hacking through the security door while one guard was on a smoke break. She flitted quickly between shadows and hallways, getting to the main warehouse part without being detected, for some reason the warehouse seemed eerily quiet. Root rushed over to one of the pallets and opened a box; she pulled out several sealed packages and ripped through them. Just as she suspected, neuroimplants with microtransponders for people with cerebral damage or epilepsy. The Machine had predicted that Samaritan planned to collect data from these implants to study people at an electrochemical level. 

“Neurotransmitters, you were right,” she whispered, “Can you hear me?” Root was lost in thought, hoping the Machine could see and hear her discovery. 

“I can hear you just fine, stop talking or you’re growing to draw too much unwanted Samaritan attention,” Shaw popped up in front of Root. 

“What are you doing here?” asked a slightly startled and agitated Root. “I’m handling this fine on my own.” 

Suddenly, they heard shots off in the distance. “Reese and Fusco are by the entrance, let’s move.” Shaw said motioning for Root to follow her. 

“We can’t leave these here, they must be destroyed,” Root stood firmly next to the pallets; she pulled out a bomb from her bag. 

Shaw rushed back and looked over the bomb, “There’s enough C4 here to blow up half the town.” 

“And these deadly devices,” Root set up the bomb, “If it stops Sammy the Squirrel and her quest for love prediction, all the better.” That remark did bring a slight smirk to Shaw’s lips and eyes, but time was running out to evacuate the premises. 

“Leave it Root,” Shaw pulled on Root’s arm roughly to get her to move.

“Shaw, this is too important.” Root stood her ground firmly.

Shots fired at both of them came from across the warehouse. They both ducked immediately and took cover. Root angled to move back to the bomb.

“Root, don’t even think about it,” Shaw said in her meanest growl. 

Root smirked at Shaw and then ran back over to the pallets where she left the bomb. She was a target and bullets started whizzing towards her. Shaw jumped up and ran after Root, getting hit in the process. When they made back to the pallets. Root looked over and saw Shaw’s wound. 

“Shaw...are you okay?” asked a stunned Root. 

“Yes, let’s keep going,” Shaw said, although it was obvious she wouldn’t be able to go much further. 

Root managed to set up the bomb amidst the gunfire. Shaw was able to shoot off quite a few rounds killing off the Samaritan agents in the immediate area. When the area seemed clear, they both made their way to a side entrance, Shaw struggled more and more because of her wounds. 

Root looked back and felt an ache in her chest when she saw Shaw struggling. 

Shaw caught her looking, “I’m fine. I’m a doctor, these aren’t fatal; just in annoying locations. Let’s find Reese and Fusco.” 

They rounded the corner and saw Finch walking through the door. 

“Finch, what the hell are you doing in here? Who’s watching the outside?” asked a confused Shaw, trying to conceal the pains from her wounds. 

“Mr. Reese...” Finch looked bewildered and completely grief stricken, “Mr. Fusco...they’re gone.” 

“They left? What the hell?” barked a winded Shaw, who looked paler by the second. 

Root looked somber, “They’re dead.” The hacker looked around the warehouse with wild eyes, “We’ve got to get out of here. This was an ambush.” 

“It’s no use Ms. Groves, we’re surrounded,” Finch said in his most defeated tone. Before Finch could finish his sentence more shots rang out and Shaw fell to the ground. 

“Shaw!” Root screamed and rushed to her side. 

Samaritan guards and operatives descended quickly, too many guns to count pointed at them. Before Root could pull the bomb device out of her leather jacket she was fatally shot along with Finch. Her eyes closed and everything went dark.


	2. Day Two and Three

**_Day Two_ **

Root jolted awake, with a confused, scared look on her face of being shaken out of a nightmare. She felt pressure on top of her chest, which was incredibly discerning. Then she suddenly heard, ♫ ‘Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh, no, no ♫’ and she looked to the 80s era clock radio on the nightstand with a bewildered look on her face. Curled up on top of her chest was the calico tabby cat again. This time she pushed off the cat a little quicker so she could get out of bed while ‘Crazy In Love’ finished up and the local morning DJs came on talking.

“Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today,” said one of the local morning disc jockeys.

Root turned to the clock radio and stared as the exchange between the DJs from yesterday repeated. 

“That blizzard! The blizzard! Ah! Oh, well, here's the report! The National Weather Service is calling for a "big blizzard thing!"

Root felt very disoriented, she looked around the room. How had she got back to the room after the warehouse? Shaw must have gotten them out and patched them up. After they were shot? Shaw was shot. She did not like seeing Shaw shot. Nothing kills that cat. This idea seemed to reassure and relax her. Or had she fallen asleep and had a nightmare? Maybe it was all a elaborate nightmare brought on by that icicle shower. Her stomach felt weird though, everything seemed eerily familiar.

“Nice going boys, you’re playing yesterday’s tape…or hopefully it was a dream?” 

Root walked over and splashed some water on her face. She then went to the window to look outside; clear streets with people walking towards the town square for the squirrel spectacle. The cat stared at her after getting re-situated on the bed amongst the covers. She got dressed quickly, feeling something was off and left her room.

She ran into the same man from yesterday in the hallway. 

“Morning, off to the see the squirrel?” Root just stared at him completely puzzled. “Do you think more matches than breakups?”

“Didn’t we do this yesterday?” asked a confused Root.

“I don’t know what you mean,” the man was confused and slightly scared of Root.

Root pushed the man against the wall by grabbing the lapels of his suit jacket along with a menacing look in her eyes. 

“What day is this?” Root demanded.

“It’s February 14th, Valentine’s Day,” the man looked completely terrified of Root.

“Yeah. I’m sorry. You know, I thought it was yesterday.” Root then let go of the lapels of his suit jacket. 

“Oh, okay. Nervous about your prediction? Hoping for a match?” the man chuckled nervously as he moved slowly and cautiously away from Root. “Uh, good luck,” he said as he scurried away down the hallway.

Root’s head felt really foggy, she slowly walked down the stairs towards the dining area. Mrs. Lancaster approached her as she had done before. This didn’t feel like a dream Root thought, and yesterday didn’t feel like a dream either.

“Did you sleep well Ms. Connors?” asked a sweet Mrs. Lancaster to Root.

“Do you ever have déjà vu, Mrs. Lancaster?” asked a very confused Root, looking around at the surroundings.

“I don’t think so, but I could check with the kitchen,” the clueless Mrs. Lancaster stared curiously at Root.

“No, that’s okay. Thank you, Mrs. Lancaster,” Root said as she poured herself a cup of coffee to go and headed towards the door.

“Will you be checking out today Ms. Connors?”

“Maybe…” Root scrunched up her face and left the bed and breakfast.

Root felt very uneasy, she began a slow walk to the town square. A woman passed her by so she called out to her, “Excuse me, where is everybody going?”

“To Cupid’s Knob, it’s Valentine’s Day.” The woman yelled back as she continued on walking to the town square.

“It’s still just once a year, isn’t it?” Root yelled back to the woman, knowing she wasn’t going to get an answer.

Root kept walking and rounded the same corner, as the day before and there was Nelly Ryerson once again yelling from across the street.

“Hey! Kelly! Is that you Kelly?!”” Nelly ran across the street to eagerly greet Root. “Kelly Dyson, I thought that was you. Don’t say you don’t remember me because I sure as heckfire remember you.” Nelly smiled at Root with an expectant face once again.

“Nelly Ryerson?” Root said hesitantly, everything felt very surreal at the moment. She felt like she was slow scrubbing through yesterday and particularly felt uneasy about the ending.

“Bing! First shot out of the box!” Nelly gave Root a friendly swat on the arm.

“Honestly, I’m not feeling that well Nelly,” Root continued walking and Nelly put her arm around the hacker’s shoulder as she followed her.

“It’s funny, you should mention your health because you will never guess what I do now,” Nelly followed in step with Root maintaining her almost bear hug on the hacker.

“You sell life insurance,” Root replied back while she kept scanning the area and being completely dumbfounded that it looked exactly the same as yesterday.

“Bing again! You’re sharp as a tack today!” Nelly studied Root quickly, “I got a feeling you don’t have any. Am I right? Or am I right? Right?!” 

Nelly kept repeating and poking Root in the stomach, which made Root feel even more uneasy and she had to find Finch or Shaw.

“I gotta go,” Root pushed off Nelly quickly stepped in the same dirty, icy puddle as yesterday; her leather boot ruined again.

“Watch out for that first step, it’s a doozy! Ooohhh!” Nelly yelled at Root.

Root walked through the dense quickly, knowing exactly where to go. She felt relieved when she saw Shaw standing there with the microphone in hand, a familiar scowl on her face as she approached. She felt her chest tighten seeing the petite primary asset alive and well.

“You’re late,” Shaw stormed up to Root looking her up and down before shoving her in front of Fusco’s camera and handing her a microphone. “We’ve only got a few minutes to get some coverage,” Shaw reached over and adjusted Root’s collar on her shirt like she did the day before.

Root reached out and held onto Shaw’s hand, gripping it hard. Then Root pulled Shaw into a hug quickly, and held her tight. Shaw’s face was smashed into Root’s chest. Reese and Fusco looked on slightly bewildered at the two women.

“Root, why are you hugging me? Stop it.” Shaw pulled away from Root and straightened her coat; she looked at Root like she was crazy.

Root just stared at her like she was a ghost. To the hacker she might literally be a ghost. Would that make her a ghost too she thought? She hadn’t thought about that theory, what if they were all dead and this was the ninth circle of hell, Maple. She then turned and looked at Fusco and Reese, both alive and well or doomed ghosts. They were all in the bad place together.

“Shaw, do me a favor. I need you to give me a good, hard slap across the face,” Root said to Shaw. “Punch, if you prefer.”

Shaw then punched Root in the face, pretty hard for Root, pretty easy for Shaw. The tall lanky hacker wobbled back a few feet, trying to stay vertical after the powerful punch. Yet a smile did spread across Root’s face.

“How’s that?” asked a smug Shaw, ready to punch Root again if necessary.

“Good,” Root rubbed her jaw with her gloved hand. Shaw could really pack a wallop; Root’s jaw already ached.

“If you need help with the other cheek, let me know I’m right here,” Fusco said while watching the odd exchange between the two women. “However, a kiss packs a better punch sometimes than an actual punch,” said the detective nonchalantly as he continued inspecting the camera, until Root looked back at him with a lopsided smile.

Root nodded, “You’re right, Lionel. That would hurt less and be just as jolting.”

Root licked her lips and Fusco put down the camera fast and puckered his lips to prepare for impact when he was suddenly and unceremoniously was shoved out of the way as Root latched herself onto Shaw’s lips instead. Shaw grabbed Root roughly by her peacoat as she kissed her hard and senseless. Root reached up and grabbed Shaw’s coat hard as she opened her mouth and slid her tongue into Shaw’s surprisingly welcoming mouth. Fusco and Reese looked on with raised eyebrows, as did quite a few of the surrounding bystanders.

“Sammy will definitely pick the love hole for you two!” Yelled out one bystander excitedly, along with some whoop whoop cheers.

Shaw then realized to her horror she was indeed sucking on Root’s tongue, which was warming her entire body despite the blizzard conditions. She shoved Root away, wiped her mouth with the backside of her sleeve, and then studied the hacker for a response. 

Root stepped close to Shaw invading her personal space and pulling her slightly away from Fusco, “Something is going on, something kind of weird. I don’t know what to do.” 

Shaw rolled her eyes and lifted her hands up and down in mild defeat.

“Are you drunk or something?” Shaw found herself once again untangling her hands and arms from the hacker who kept touching her just to make sure she was real and because it felt good.

“Drunk would be more fun. I need to be serious with you for a minute,” Root lowered her face; she moved her face closer to Shaw’s. She tried not to get distracted being so close to Shaw, but she failed; she inhaled and wished she could press her lips against Shaw’s neck. Just having been kissed surprisingly by the petite primary asset wasn’t helping in avoiding these types of thoughts.

“I don’t know can you be serious without any innuendo?” Shaw didn’t move away, she stared into Root’s eyes defiantly. Root noticed that Shaw inhaled too.

“I might be having a problem,” Root thought despite the possible existential life existence problem, she also had a problem of desperately wanting to be with Shaw again like their time in the CIA safe house.

“A problem with the Machine?” asked a thoroughly confused and impatient Shaw.

“No, either I’m having a stroke, we’re all dead and this is hell or there’s a rip in the time space continuum,” Root stared intensely at Shaw who in returned rolled her eyes.

“Okay, ready Fusco? Let’s do this, so we can go on to the good stuff,” Shaw looked over to Fusco who nodded to her, and then she looked over to Reese who also nodded. Root stood there watching the scene for the second time.

“See, I knew you were going to say that,” Root really hoped she was having a nightmare and would wake up soon. “This feels really surreal. And repetitive.”

Shaw stopped for a moment, “Root, we need to do this quick and move on.” 

Root sighed and finally let go of Shaw’s arm, Fusco and Reese looked back and forth between each other still utterly confused.

“It’s Valentine’s Day…again. Which means we are here at Cupid’s Knob waiting to see how many couples love psychic Sammy the squirrel matches up or sends home heartbroken. So let’s take a look,” Root spoke with a flat tone, looking visibly shaken and definitely freaked out.

Leslie Thompson started her speech again and the couples once again started rolling out. Before Sammy the squirrel could predict Earl and Lisa’s fate, Root said congrats. Shaw, Reese and Fusco gave Root odd looks.

Next up on stage was Joe and Cindy from before, “Hope they didn’t put down any deposits yet,” Root said while Shaw, Fusco and Reese stared at her strangely as the squirrel psychic then predicted it was a doomed relationship.

“How did you know?” asked Fusco with both his eyebrows arched up high.

“Tom and George are obviously going to have a better wedding than Earl and Lisa,” Root said in a snarky tone while her teammates stared at her with mild disbelief, “What? It’s true.”

Root couldn’t take it anymore; she dropped the microphone and stormed away from the festival and so-called team.

Finch called out over the comm links, “Where is Ms. Groves going?”

“Root! Uh, Sam!” Shaw called out after the hacker but she didn’t stop, she kept walking off into the crowd.

Later, Root drove out to the warehouse in a daze, she trudged through the mounting snow brought on by the blizzard. The Machine hadn’t spoken to her before the blizzard on the first day. She went inside the warehouse like the day before and worked through everything faster, yet Shaw still showed up by her side. She watched this time in horror as the same events played out, except for one detail this time. She was able to reach inside her coat pocket and pull out the bomb detonator. And she crawled over and cradled Shaw in her arms, against the petite primary asset’s weak verbal protests, although Shaw did lean her head back against Root’s chest.

Shaw was fading, but she wasn’t out yet as she laid nearly motionless in Root’s arms. 

“Well, I’m down for a Thelma & Louise ending, especially if we can take a large chunk of Samaritan with us,” Shaw looked over to Root and Finch. “Although, looks like Harvey Keitel will have to join us in the convertible.”

“Let’s hope for a better tomorrow for the world,” Finch solemnly said as he looked over to Root and Shaw, with guards encircling them pointing a multitude of guns at them, all within seconds of firing.

“There wasn’t a tomorrow today,” Root said as she tightened her hold on Shaw, who had gotten very quiet.

Finch looked over to Root and nodded. Root pushed down on the button and everything went dark.

**_Day Three_ **

Root awoke with jolt; she sprang up so fast she knocked the calico tabby cat off her chest. The ♫‘Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh, no, no’ ♫ softly played again on the 80s clock radio on the nightstand. Then some more, ♫‘Got me looking so crazy right now, your love's got me looking so crazy right now in love…’ ♫ And the DJs started their same banter again. Root dressed super fast, looking very disheveled and ran out in the hallway, she avoided the man in the hallway and dashed down the stairs. She ignored Mrs. Lancaster who called after her, she hit the streets and the same scene presented itself to her; there were people walking down the non-snowy street towards Cupid’s Knob for Valentine’s Day festival. She hurried on toward the square to find Shaw and the rest of the crew. When she rounded the one corner there was Nelly Ryerson again.

“Hey! Kelly! Is that you Kelly?!” yelled out Nelly, as soon as she got close to Root.

Root pushed Kelly away and started jogging towards the town square. Nelly was still going on about insurance, as Root got further away from her, until she hit the same icy mud puddle where once again she submerged her foot underwater.

Root jogged over to Shaw, Fusco and Reese. Once again a massive wave of relief flooded Root’s entire body when she saw Shaw alive and well. 

“You’re late,” Shaw reached over and adjusted Root’s collar on her shirt like she did the day before and the day before that, “We’ve only got a few minutes to get some coverage.”

“Can I talk to you about something not work related?” Root almost begged of Shaw.

Shaw looked confused at Root; she also noticed anxious energy coming off the hacker. 

She leaned in close to Root, “As long as it’s not about the CIA safe house,” she whispered. Shaw let Root pull her away a few feet from the guys.

“Hey, where are the two of you going?” asked Fusco while lowering the camera.

“It’s ladies issues,” Root grabbed Shaw’s arm and pulled her further away.

“We’ve got work to do,” Shaw pulled back and looked at Root.

“I don’t, I’ve already done this twice already. And I’ve already seen you die twice, already. I’m not a fan of seeing you die. Or even Harold.” 

Shaw stared back at Root with a bewildered look on her face. “Let’s go to the diner.” Root pulled Shaw along with her to the diner; strangely enough the petite primary asset let the hacker drag her away.

“What’s that all about?” asked Fusco to Reese and Finch over the comm links.

“I don’t know, but we better keep an eye on them,” Reese said as he watched the two women meander through the crowd towards the diner.

As soon as they were settled down at a table with coffee, there was loud crash from a busboy dropping a full bucket of dishes. Root jolted in her chair as people clapped for the poor busboy. Shaw watched Root; she could tell the hacker was really freaked out about something.

“Now tell me why you’re too sick to work and it better be good,” Shaw leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed against her chest.

“Shaw, I’m reliving the same day over and over…Valentine’s Day, today,” Root seemed genuinely scared.

“Okay, I’m waiting for the punch line,” Shaw replied back with mighty skepticism.

“This is the third time, it’s like yesterday never happened,” Root had a helpless worried look on her face. “Or the yesterday of yesterday.”

Shaw remained stoic with her arms crossed on her chest, she watched Root intensely, “I’m racking my brain, but I can’t even imagine why you would make up something like this, unless the Machine has driven you literally crazy.”

“I’m not making this up, I’m asking you for help,” Root got angry and raised her voice to Shaw.

“What do you want me to do?” Shaw then raised her voice to Root, both anger levels raising.

“I don’t know you’re a doctor. Come up with something,” Root got right up in Shaw’s face. “It’s like I’m dying in a video game and being respawned over and over.”

“Like a simulation?”

“Yes, it all seems so real. I need your help.” Root was agitated and getting impatient.

“You want my advice? I think you need to get your head examined if you expect me to believe a silly ass story like that,” Shaw got angrier listening to Root’s problem, she thought the hacker might be having some sort of Machine breakdown.

They both stared off at each other, holding eye contact and not breaking. The air between them felt tense. Root didn’t want to think how she couldn’t stop her eyes from lowering down to Shaw’s lips. Shaw noticed of course when Root’s eyes lowered to lips, her eyes betrayed her brain and did the same. Flashes of the CIA safe house flooded both women’s senses and thoughts, as they tried to remain calm in the public setting while also being undercover. 

Two women at the next table over, Barb and Susie, looked familiar to Root from her two non-existent days around town. Barb and Susie watched Root and Shaw with a lot of interest. The mutual nostril flaring and raised voices were hard to ignore, almost any bystander would half expect the two women to stand up and push all the dishes onto the floor and start heavily making out.

Barb leaned over to Root and Shaw’s table, “Don’t be nervous about going to see Sammy the squirrel, I have a feeling about you two. It’s going to be love in the hole.”

“Sounds like a Hallmark After Dark movie, thanks for interrupting,” Root said in one her of more sardonic tones.

Reese and Fusco entered the diner and approached their table. 

“We need to get going,” Reese said to Shaw but also included Root.

“I’m not going, the blizzard is coming. I haven’t stayed here yet, I’m going to try that,” Root replied back with getting three very confused faces looking at her. “I’m not going! I’m going to stay here and eat a sticky bun.” Root said in a louder, more assertive voice. 

Shaw, Reese and Fusco slowly backed away from Root’s table. Fusco made a cuckoo gesture with his hand to his head.

“Finch, we don’t have to worry about Root, she’s not going to the warehouse,” Reese said as he turned and walked out of the diner. “Apparently, a sticky bun is taking top priority.”

“Thank you, Mr. Reese. Please, still proceed with extreme caution,” Finch said over the comm links.

After her sticky bun, Root went to the town hospital to see a doctor, the doctor looked over an x-ray. His diagnosis was to see a psychiatrist.

“I’ve already been one, wasn’t really helpful,” Root left the doctor’s office and wandered around the small town on foot for a few hours. She stumbled upon a bowling alley that had a bar.

She sat at the bowling alley bar for hours and was eventually joined by Barb and Susie from the bowling league night and diner from earlier in the day.

“Where’s your sweetie?” asked Barb to Root.

“She’s not my sweetie. Well, not yet,” Root smiled weakly and took a sip of her fruity cocktail.

The three women sat commiserating that they didn’t have anyone to take to see if they had a love match with Sammy the squirrel. They all got a little drunk; well the other two women, Barb and Susie, got pretty plastered as Root was buying.

“There was this one job one day,” Root talked to her new friends Barb and Susie, the two women looked on enthralled in the outsider’s story, “I kidnapped this gorgeous, stunning...grumpy woman, we saved some people, shot some bad guys…let’s just say it didn’t suck...” Root had a dreamy, dopey look on her face, “…well actually, there was lots of sucking involved that day.” Root’s smile widened, “The best ten hours of my life.” 

The two women looked on impressed while Root smiled to herself. 

“Why couldn’t I repeat that day over and over?”

“You seem like a glass half empty gal to me,” Susie said taking another sip of her strawberry margarita.

“What would you do if you were stuck in the one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” Root asked to Barb and Susie.

“That about sums up my life for me,” said Barb glumly while staring into her almost empty margarita glass.

Hours later, they all three women stumbled drunk onto the street from the now closed bowling alley. They piled into Barb’s car, Root offered to drive, as she was the least drunk one which wasn’t saying much. Root drove rather wildly on the streets, going way too fast and erratically as Barb and Susie clutched the dashboard stunned expressions.

“Let me ask y’all something, what if there was no tomorrow?” asked Root while she hit another parked car on the street and kept driving.

“No tomorrow? That would be wonderful. No consequences, no hangovers, we could do whatever we want!” Barb yelled drunkenly and excitedly.

Root had a very mischievous look on her face, having a huge epiphany, “That’s true,” she said with a big smile, “we could do whatever we want.”

Root spotted a mailbox and plowed right into it, knocking it over sending letters and cards flying off into the air as she continued to speed off down the street.

“If we wanted to hit mailboxes, we could have let Susie drive,” said Barb in a drunken slur.

As Root drove recklessly around town, hitting more parked cars and smashing into things. 

”It's the same thing your whole life: Don’t hack the government. Stay in the cage. Get paid less than a man. Be nice to the dog. Don’t fall in love with me.” Root said with disdain for all of them. “Oh yeah, don't drive on the railroad tracks,” Root angled the car over to ride on the railroad tracks instead of the street.

“Well, Sam, that's one I happen to agree with,” said a nervous Barb sobering up fast while watching an oncoming train got closer and closer to their car.

“I’m not going to live by their rules anymore, you make choices and you live by them. That doesn’t apply to me anymore,” Root had a look of evil glee on her face as she pulled the car off the tracks and missed the oncoming train barely, much to the relief of Barb and Susie.

After, Root crashed Barb’s car into Maple’s Sammy the squirrel throne in the town square, the cops hauled off all three women to jail.

As Root laid down on her jail cell bumpy bed she had a smile on her face, then off in the far distance she heard a loud explosion. “Damn it, Shaw.”


	3. How to woo and unwoo Shaw repeatedly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so very much for anyone reading, hope in between the messy bits there are some good bits - not entirely sure. Massive thanks to T_Ninja for being subjected to look this over, so very very kind of you :-)

**_Day Four_ **

Root opened her eyes, she got very excited when she saw the calico tabby cat on her chest and heard Beyonce’s ♫‘Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh, no, no’♫ on the clock radio.

“Yes!” Root shouted, the cat jumped off of her and the bed and took cover on a nearby plush chair. Root jumped off the bed as well and bounced to the window to double check there wasn’t snow. 

“Yes!” Root jumped up and down with her arms in the air. She started singing the classic Beyoncé song. 

♫ ‘Got me looking so crazy right now, your love's, Got me looking so crazy right now in love…♫” Root sang and danced in her pink elephant pajamas to the song, really getting her groove on. She jumped up and down; she gyrated and swayed her hips from side to side while making sweeping wing span arm movements with some fist pumps thrown in. 

The cat watched Root’s dance moves with extreme judgmental distaste.

After she was dressed, Root walked in the dining area of the bed and breakfast happily. Before Mrs. Lancaster could ask her the same question, Root replied, “Yes, thank you slept like a baby. And yes, I would love some of your coffee.” 

Before Mrs. Lancaster could ask the rest of her questions, Root cut her off again, “Uh, Mrs. Lancaster, was anybody looking for me here this morning? Perhaps a state official? Maybe a blue hat, gun, nightstick?” Root made gestures while she talked.

“Oh, no, no one like that. Will there be?” asked a shocked Mrs. Lancaster.

“Apparently not,” Root smiled at Mrs. Lancaster then gave the older woman a big hug and big kiss on the mouth. “Will you hold my room for me please, I’m going to stay an extra night.”

Mrs. Lancaster stood there stunned, but also flattered as she watched Root leave she smiled shyly while she played with her hair.

Root walked down the street with a jolly smile towards the town square once again, she was ready for Nelly Ryerson when she turned the corner.

“Hey! Kelly! Is that you Kelly?!” Kelly ran across the street to greet Root excitedly.

“Nelly Ryerson!” Root then punched Nelly right in the face, she had gleeful smile as she continued walking on. And this time, Root jumped over the icy deep-water puddle, thus saving her leather boot.

Later, after their cover reporting gig Shaw went into the diner to find Root sitting at table completely covered with all kinds of food, everything from pancakes to steaks to sticky buns to almost every fried food imaginable to donuts to canisters of coffee and soda. Shaw’s eyes scanned the feast and her mouth started to water.

“Pull up a seat Shaw, dig in,” Root picked up an empty plate and handed it to Shaw in one hand while her other hand held a cigarette, she took a few puffs and blew out circles through her lips.

“Since when do you smoke? Or eat red meat?” asked Shaw as she tore into a rib eye steak.

“I realized my years are not advancing as fast as I thought, so I’m indulging,” Root picked up a massive piece of pink cake and shoved the whole thing in her mouth, frosting was smeared around her lips, Shaw watched with surprise. “Another thing, I never have to floss again,” said Root with her mouth full of pastry goodness. 

Shaw was kind of impressed with Root’s new eating habits; she then grabbed another steak and started devouring it.

Reese and Fusco walked up to the table, they both did a double take looking at the decadent feast sprawled out on the table and the two women stuffing food in their mouths.

“Hate to break up the buffet, we need to get going,” Reese said in his low whisper tone.

“Would you like a doggy bag, Nutella?” Fusco raised his eyebrows and his eyes were taking in the impressive spread.

“Lionel, these are delicious, you gotta try one,” Root lifted up a stinky bun on a napkin and handed it to Fusco. “I’m going to stay here, good luck and hope it’s not too painful this time.” Root took a few more puffs on her cigarette while she grabbed a handful of fries and chowed them down.

“What’s she talking about?” asked Fusco to Shaw and Reese, who both just shrugged.

“You’re not coming?” asked Shaw as she shoved a few slices of bacon into her mouth.

“Take Reese and Fusco inside with you, guarding the entrance won’t help at all,” Root said very nonchalantly. Then stopped chewing and started at her favorite primary asset and said with a serious tone, “Shaw, be careful.” 

Before Shaw could leave the table, Root leaned over the table, grabbed her shirt and shocked the shorter woman by kissing her full on the lips and smearing cake frosting on her face. Shaw’s lips reciprocated the kiss before her brain told them to shut it down. She pulled back and stared at Root hard while she grabbed a napkin to wipe the frosting off her face. Shaw shook her head, looked over to the guys who stood there stunned. She got up and left the diner. Root watched after her with a sad smile, she ran her finger across her warm lips, before focusing back on her food, which lifted up her mood a bit.

After, Root finished eating a ton of food she spotted a fairly attractive woman sitting alone at the diner. She chatted up the woman Nancy for a few minutes, downloading all kinds of personal details about the woman. She had to go old school since the Machine wasn’t talking to her. When Root got enough details from the woman she left abruptly, the woman called after her, offended.

**_Another Day_ **

Root got to know the town and it’s routine fairly quickly, now she decided she was going to have some fun. If she was going to be stuck here for however long, she was going start playing around with the code of the day. She sat outside the bank waiting for the delivery she already watched several times, she knew the script by heart.

“Okay, a gust of wind,” Root sat under a tree and looked up when the leaves lifted up and down from the wind in a pretty harmony. She focused back on the repeated scene across the street, “A dog barks.” Off in the distance a dog barked. “Cue the truck,” just then an armored truck drove up. Root then did a spot on impression of everything taking place across the street from the exchange between the two delivery men and with the waitress from the diner Doris. 

“Fix your bra strap honey,” Root talked to herself and to Doris as the waitress did indeed adjust her bra strap. Then came the part Root was waiting for, the delivery men turned around to help Doris with a roll quarters she dropped. Root carefully and quickly sauntered across the street, quietly approached the truck and stole one of the moneybags.

Since she had stolen the money with no consequences, Root went on a shopping spree and generally goofed off, which was something she never really did in her life. She tried to get Shaw to play hooky with her to no avail; she hadn’t cracked the code yet to Shaw. And she knew even though she wouldn’t be there to bring the bomb she had to the warehouse, Shaw would get her hands on another one and she would hear another explosion sometime in the night. That’s the part of the day she was beginning to hate. She started carrying around ear buds to tune out that specific time; she didn’t like to be in a world without Shaw, even if thankfully it’s only for a few hours.

She actually wandered around the Valentine’s Day carnival a few times, however she found the event so annoying with all the heart decorations everywhere and happy couples. Root did like most of the carnival food and thought Shaw would probably appreciate it as well. She then started thinking of ways to get Shaw to the carnival instead of going to the warehouse. Quite a few times, she rented out the only movie theater in town just for her solo viewing pleasure. She mainly watched her favorite films over and over; a few times she put on some action movies she thought Shaw might enjoy. Root had gotten to know the whole staff at the movie theater pretty well. And on movie nights, she didn't have to worry about hearing the explosion far off in the distance.

**_Another Day_ **

Root figured out that she could stall the team long enough on some days that sometimes no one got hurt and there was no explosion. She had to finally admit, it wasn’t fun watching Harold and his team die every day. They didn’t seem to like her, yet they were all working towards the same goal. Keeping the team in town away from the warehouse involved Root having to break the van and steal auto parts from both of the only mechanics in town. On the days she was successful in stalling the team once again, Root would follow Shaw to a hotel bar. If there was one thing about having all the time in the world, it was learning how to really hack and woo someone you really like.

Root sauntered up to the bar where Shaw sat drinking. The bartender turned to Root as she ordered her drink.

“Can I get a strawberry margarita, please.” She heard Shaw snort and laugh at the same time about her drink order, a snaugh.

“I’ll take another whiskey, top shelf,” Shaw said deadpan without turning to look at Root to the bartender.

**_Next Day_ **

Root walked up to the bar, she didn’t talk or look at Shaw but motioned to the bartender.

“Excuse me, could I get whiskey please. Top shelf if you have it,” Root said as smoothly as she could without looking at Shaw.

Shaw’s eye did a little double take even though she didn’t look at Root. She continued to stare down at the bar. 

When the bartender brought over Root’s drink, she picked it up and held it.

“What shall we toast to?” asked Root excitedly to Shaw.

“I don’t do toasts,” Shaw said as downed her whiskey, slammed the glass on the bar and walked off.

**_Next Day_ **

Root walked up to the bar, she didn’t talk or look at Shaw but motioned to the bartender.

“Whiskey please. Top shelf if you have it,” Root stood by the bar, she watched Shaw out of the corner of her eye while also pretending to be bored.

After several failed attempts, Root learned the best way to sit next to Shaw for the longest amount of time was not to talk to her. She decided to break that rule one day to learn more Shaw coding.

“What kind of person are you attracted to?” Root thought why not, learning new stuff about Shaw or getting her angry were both fun options.

“Root,” Shaw said in a warning tone.

“What kind of people do you like to have sex with? Since you know…no relationships,” Root knew at any moment Shaw was going to storm off and she would have to wait to respawn before trying again.

Shaw’s lips curled into a slight smile, “Good body, but not too vain. They need to play a musical instrument. They need to know how to ice sculpt. Speak Farsi. Black belt in jujitsu. Submissive and dominant…”

“Check, check, check all me,” Root scooted closer to Shaw, she could almost feel the loose strands of Shaw’s hair that had fallen out of her ponytail on her shoulder. “I’m practically a 98% match here.”

“Likes a little pain with their pleasure. Someone who thinks of others and not just themselves,” Shaw had a stern look on her face, however, underneath she held down an amused smirk. “Someone who served in the military. Knows how to forge a sword. Has the culinary skills of a Michelin chef. Can tame feral animals.” Shaw had a look on her face as if she was thinking of more things to add to the list.

“This is just one person we are talking about right?” Root asked because this list was getting too long for her to manage.

“No, it’s not just one person. Since I don’t do relationships,” said Shaw as finished off her whisky and slammed the glass down on the bar and walked off.

**_Next Day_ **

“Can I buy you dinner?” asked Root sitting next to Shaw at the bar.

“No,” Shaw downed her whiskey, slammed the empty glass on the bar counter and walked off.

**_Next Day_ **

“I’m going to get a steak,” Root slowly pushed off the bar in hopes Shaw would follow her.

“Yeah, I could eat.” Shaw followed Root out of the bar.

The two women were seated in the nicest restaurant in town, which Root knew had the best steaks in the area.

“Why do you work with Harold and the helper monkey?” asked Root knowing she might have to throw in the towel after any question and start over the next day.

“Saving people’s lives,” Shaw said in between bites of her steak.

“What a waste of time,” Root said while Shaw gave her one of the meanest scowls, “…I mean for someone else not you…you’re great at it.” Root made a defeated face.

**_Next Day_ **

“Saving people’s lives,” Shaw said in between bites of her steak.

“And thank god you’re there to save them,” Root took a sip of the whiskey and stayed quiet.

“Even if I can’t do it in the medical field anymore,” Shaw took another bite of steak, “I am equally good with a gun as I am with a scalpel. And thankfully, shooting involves less talking usually. Except when you’re concerned.” Shaw made a scowl to Root. 

Root smiled at Shaw and changed topics, “What’s your favorite language?”

Shaw sighed, she didn’t really want to keep talking but she did for some reason. “Farsi, my parents would speak it to each other when I was a kid.”

“شما زیبا هستی”Root said, she took a deep breath and made her best heart eyes at Shaw, who in return looked like she was going to punch her and not in a fun way.

**_Next Day_ **

“Farsi, my parents would speak it to each other when I was a kid,” Shaw said while looking down into her whiskey.

“شما یک تفنگ قوی هستند,” Root said while holding up her glass a little to Shaw and taking a sip.

Shaw stared back at her a little surprised; she took a sip of her whiskey. Root bit down on her lip to hold down a small smile.

Root realized she could get the dinners to last longer if she didn’t talk, so often they sat in comfortable silence together. Shaw liked silence.

After dinner, Root and Shaw walked the streets of Maple many times. They avoided the Valentine’s Day carnival many times. A few times they were lured over by the carnival food. Root knew which vendors had the food Shaw would like best after many failed attempts. Root did long to go on the Ferris wheel after many visits to the carnival with Shaw. She hadn’t been able to convince the petite primary asset yet to get on the Ferris wheel ride. Root did manage to win Shaw a stuffed heart bear a few times, which got many epic eye rolls from Shaw. A few times Shaw competed to see who could win the most and biggest stuffed heart bears with Root. The two of them on some days ended up with a dozen stuffed heart bears. Root liked those days.

Root ushered them into a good candy store many times, where they bought bags of fudge quite a few times.

“How do you know so much about Maple?” asked Shaw while eating the fudge.

“I’ve spent a lot of time here…researching Decima,” Shaw gave Root a curious look, “Hey, I can’t spend all my time kidnapping you.”

“Do you ever have déjà vu?” Shaw looked around the town as they walked the streets of Maple.

“Didn't you just ask me that?” Root couldn’t hold down a small laugh.

On the edge of the town square, there was enough snow on the ground to build a snow person. So they started rolling the snow and building a snow person together. When they were done, Root surprised Shaw by pulling out a pipe and fake eyeballs for the snow person.

“Where did you get that?” Shaw asked suspiciously.

Root stalled, and then sheepishly added, “The Machine.” What’s another lie on top of so many.

Suddenly, they were hit with snowballs from some teenagers on the other side of the town square. The teens picked on the wrong two women to throw snowballs at. Within sixty seconds Root and Shaw had the teens running for the lives or at the very least their boyish pride.

“That was too easy,” Shaw seemed disappointed, “We didn’t even get to scare them properly.”

**_Next Day_ **

Suddenly, they were hit with snowballs from some teenagers on the other side of the town square.

Root and Shaw abandoned their snowman to fire off snowballs at the teenagers.

“You draw them out to this side,” instructed Root to Shaw.

“Why?” asked Shaw in between throwing hurling fast snowballs at the teenagers.

“Trust me,” said Root as she smiled to Shaw while running off in the opposite direction.

When the teenagers got cornered on the other side, they were in close range of Root and Shaw’s snowman. Suddenly, the snowman exploded showering snow all over the teens.

“What the fuck??!” yelled one teen as he ran away.

“I think I shit my pants!” screamed another teen as he ran away in a different direction.

Root walked over from behind a tree to where Shaw was standing with a smug smile on her face. Shaw shook her head and gave her a little smile.

As they went back to walking the streets, Shaw admitted, “It’s interesting how you can start the day with one kind of expectation and end up with something completely different,” Shaw looked over to Root walking along her side. “It’s been….not a terrible day. It’s like it was planned…almost.”

Root just shrugged her shoulders, they continued walking onto her bed and breakfast. Once they got there, Root just barely managed to talk Shaw into coming up to see her room and to see the cat that keeps hanging out there. And she convinced the petite primary asset to help her usher the cat out of her room. Root couldn’t believe after so many attempts, she was finally getting Shaw back to her room. She knew at any moment she could blow it. 

“Where’s this mysterious cat Root?” Shaw looked around and couldn’t find a cat that Root swore slept with her at night.

They looked around the room for a few minutes before Root pushed Shaw up against the wall. She stared into her eyes briefly before kissing her hard. Root was beyond happy that Shaw kissed her back with a demanding force. 

“I’ve waited so long to do that,” Root whispered out in between kisses.

“Root, you do realize the CIA safe house was just last week,” Shaw said hoarsely in between diving back in for another long, sloppy, hungry kiss.

“It’s been much longer for me, I’ve missed you so much,” Root croaked out, she leaned her down to suck on Shaw’s neck.

“You missed me so much?” Shaw pulled away from Root; she looked spooked and confused as she slowly wandered out of the room.

Root let out a heavy sigh as she flopped down on her old-fashioned squeaky bed with a hand-sewn quilt. She had a look of defeat and frustration on her face. The cat jumped up on the bed and laid down next to her.

“What is your name anyway?” Root wondered as she petted the cat and it purred loudly.

**_Another Day_ **

Root sucked on Shaw’s neck before moving up to capture her lips again. Shaw then tore Root’s shirt off, then tore off her own. She then placed hungry kisses up and down the hacker’s chest, she yanked off Root’s bra. She reached Root’s breast and sucked on a nipple hard. Root ran her hands through Shaw’s hair, holding on tight.

“Oh Shaw...I love it when you do that,” Root croaked hoarsely while tugging on Shaw’s hair and leaning down to cradle her head.

“You love what?” Shaw pulled back to look at Root’s face.

“Nothing…too much whiskey,” Root stammered out, then she scrunched up face realizing her mistake. She then tried to cover her mistake by kissing Shaw again, but the petite primary asset pulled away. 

“This whole thing feels like one long set up. Like I’m getting tased in slow motion,” Shaw said as she stormed out of the room.

Root flung herself down on the bed and screamed into the pillows. 

**_Another Day_ **

Root and Shaw were kissing passionately, each both in a state of undress, each with a hand down the other’s pants. Barely holding themselves up against one of the walls in Root’s Kitty Napper bedroom. 

Then a trademark Root slip. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the fallout. 

“You don’t seem to want to help anyone but yourself,” Shaw paused as she reacted to Root.

“That’s not true, I want to help you...to get out of those clothes.”

The door slammed pretty hard when Shaw stormed out of the room. Root curled up on the bed once again with the cat.

**_Yet Another Day_ **

Finally, after extensive research coding and recoding then more recoding; Root had finally convinced Shaw to hang around for many hours of extremely satisfying sex. Root had perfected the perfect storm of techniques to drive Shaw into ecstasy and beyond every day.

After one particularly exhilarating round of sex, Root felt more dazed than usual. She crawled up to cover Shaw’s body and kissed her sweet sweaty neck and stupidly murmured out loud. 

“I love you.” The words fell out of Root’s mouth before she could stop them. “Damn it, ignore that.” Root wanted to smack herself in the head.

Shaw froze with her hands on Root’s butt; she pulled her lips from her neck. “You love me? You barely know me.”

Root kept kissing Shaw’s neck, “It's just an post orgasm expression.”

Shaw was out the door so fast the cat barely had time to jump on the bed before the door slammed upon her exit.

**_Another Day_ **

“This is such a bad idea,” Shaw tried to untangle herself from Root, as she straddled the hacker.

“No, it's perfect,” Root reached up and wrapped her arms around Shaw’s waist and placed open mouth kisses along Shaw’s chest.

“No. it's freakin stupid Valentine’s Day, I let you lure me here…you won me stuffed heart bears...might as well tase me and drag me to the altar.”

“That can be arranged.” Root said with a genuine smile. 

“This is like The Ring meets Cabin In The Woods meets Valentine’s Day all blended together," said Shaw while she tried to untangle herself physically and verbally from the situation, however failing because she was only half trying; her libido had other plans. “One big schmoopy horror freak show.”

Root kept kissing Shaw while moving her hands to her breast. Shaw moaned despite the worried look on her face.

“Let's make love,” Root said breathlessly as she went back to kissing Shaw’s neck and roaming her hands all over her body. She slipped a hand down Shaw’s pants and was rewarded with a moan. 

“Oh, no way. No. That is a killer’s death catchphrase.” Shaw had a mild look of horror on her face, which surprisingly melted slightly away as Root’s kissing become harder and the fact that she was kissing lower and lower. “This is a terrible idea.” Shaw moaned again because of what Root is doing with her tongue. “We can't do this again.”

“Absolutely. Never again after today. Just this one last time today.” Root smirked as she latched onto one of Shaw’s breasts, alternating between sucking and swirling her tongue around her nipple. Root paused and added, “This won’t ever happen again after tomorrow. I promise.”

“Fine,” exasperated and completely turned on Shaw mumbled out as ran her fingers through Root’s hair and grabbed it roughly, pushing her harder into her breasts.

“You can shoot me tomorrow,” Root mumbled out in between switching breasts.

“You can count on that,” groaned out Shaw while pushing Root back on the bed to lay full on top of her. “With two guns, just the way you like it.”

**_Another Day Again_ **

“Shaw, you’re not going to leave me like this,” asked Root handcuffed to the old timey squeaky bed frame as Shaw continued getting dressed.

“Yup,” Shaw finished dressing, “I gotta get to the warehouse.” She walked out of the room, with a quick glance back at Root shackled to the bed.

Root let out a frustrated scream and slammed her head against the bed frame, which slammed into the wall.

**_Another Day_ **

This time Root had actually motivated Shaw enough to push her up against the wall, where they stayed heavily making out for a while; then Shaw pulled away. “I need to get to the warehouse.”

“Do you really want to go to the warehouse?” Root went over and sat on the corner of the old timey squeaky bed. “Look in that bag over there, then decide.” Root made a coy look to Shaw.

Shaw walked over, unzipped the bag, peered inside and then took a large gulp as she turned back around to stare at Root. She shook her head and thought, why did Root have to be so completely utterly hot and infuriating irresistible. Shaw found herself once again, like in the CIA safe house losing her body to Root, she wanted nothing more to spend at least another ten hours or more with the annoying hacker in a dozen or so positions with everything in that bag. Her heart sped up as she continued to look at Root. 

Root had to hold down a huge grin, Shaw’s eyes were completely darkened and her breathing quickened.

“You just brought this along on the mission cause…you thought I would be that easy?” Shaw asked in an annoyed questioning yet adorable stance. 

“I brought it because I’m that easy…well, where you’re concerned.” Root licked her lips and stared hungrily at Shaw. “Especially, after last week,” she said but what she thought was how she had become so easy after months and months of Shaw sex marathons. She didn’t want to think how much she wanted Shaw or even the possibility of the L word. 

Shaw grabbed the bag and walked over to the Root. She dropped the bag on the bed and stood in between Root’s legs. 

“Okay, we’ve got some time before dawn.” Shaw leaned over Root to reach into the bag, purposely shoving her breasts in the hacker’s face. “You top first.”

Root swallowed hard then pulled Shaw down into a demanding kiss. She was going to hold onto Shaw somehow on this day, she wasn’t going to the warehouse; even if she had to tie her up again. 

**_Another Day_ **

The bag trick had been working really well for Root for weeks. With Shaw, every detail had to work. One wrong spoken word, one misstep in action or one wrong gesture sent the petite primary asset off scurrying away spooked.

There were a few times when they got so loud, their next-door neighbor would pound on the wall; the fact that was it was Fusco always made Root laugh. The bed was the biggest culprit of the loud noise with the squeaky old timey loose structured frame rhythmically hitting the wall repeatedly for long periods of time. And Shaw came in a close second, with being louder then Root had ever heard her before; which always delighted her to no end. 

“Hey Coco Puffs! Knock it off with whatever townie you got trapped in there!” Fusco yelled from his room while pounding on the wall, on many occasions.

“Shut up Fusco!” Shaw yelled back.

“Shaw?!” asked a thoroughly shocked Fusco.

“Great, now I’ve gotta do the walk of shame out of here in the morning,” said Shaw as she motioned for Root to unlock the handcuffs she was in attached to the top of the bed post.

“You’re staying until morning?” Root’s face lit up like a Christmas tree as she unlocked the handcuffs. As soon as Shaw shrugged out of the handcuffs, she sat up, grabbed Root and flipped her on her back.

“Or however long it takes to even out the score,” Shaw lifted up Root’s hips to unhook and remove the strap-on.

“Trust me, you’ll never have to do the walk of shame,” Root said while she leaned up to kiss Shaw, who slide in her tongue immediately. Shaw was anxious to even out the score, from top to bottom.

**_Yet Another Day_ **

Some days Root wasn’t successful at all on any fronts. Not breaking the van, not wooing Shaw or finally learning the cat’s name. On her unsuccessful days, Root would follow the team to the warehouse, but mostly she couldn’t watch the scene play out anymore. She tried so many different actions; it was a puzzle or code she couldn’t figure out yet.

**_Another Day_ **

Root decided to go the warehouse one day again, she hadn’t been in awhile not that anything ever changed in that scenario. She had been so many times and there were only two outcomes she had figured out so far: everybody died there or everybody died and she got out alive. She did mix up something different every day to see if there might be a different outcome. It was like she was recoding every day to see which one might actually work in a program. She did the same morning routine and this time rode with the team to the warehouse instead of showing up at different times.

As usual, everything went pear-shaped. This time Root ran out in front of Shaw and got shot instead of the petite primary asset. Shaw lifted Root’s shirt to take a look at the wound. The bullet tore threw everything; there was no way Root was going to make it. And Shaw couldn’t hide that on her face.

“Well, if I have to keep repeating this day, I’m glad I’m with you,” Root looked up to Shaw and tried to tell her with her eyes how much she meant to her.

Shaw looked down at Root in her arms, “What?”

“You have died so many times in my arms, I figured I'd try dying first for a change,” Root started to fade, her grip on Shaw’s arm letting go.

Shaw tried to keep Root awake, “Root…Root, you’re repeating your day over and over? Like a buff Emily Blunt?” Shaw tried to engage Root in any type of conversation to keep her awake; even if it was some crazy philosophical metaphysical science fiction nerd talk.

Root opened her eyes slowly, her eyes getting too heavy to keep open. She looked in shock as she stared at Shaw’s serious face.

“Root, Root. Come find me when you wake up. Find me when you wake up.”

Root couldn’t keep her eyes open, everything went dark.


	4. Training, day drinking and cat snuggling

**_The Next Day_ **

“Shaw!” 

Root ran up to Shaw and pulled her into a fierce, tight hug. They stood there in Cupid’s Knob, Root cradling Shaw’s head in her hands. Root looked completely disheveled, wearing her pink elephant pajama top with some jeans, her peacoat and scarf haphazardly thrown on. 

“You know what’s happening?!” Root had a relieved yet excited look on her face. Shaw’s face did not mirror Root’s, she look startled and confused; and spooked by the pink elephant pajama top.

Shaw pulled away from Root, confused eyes searched the hacker’s eyes. 

Reese, Fusco and Harold looked over at Shaw even more confused than most days.

“When we died again yesterday, you said to come find you when I woke up. How can we stop it? Are you reliving the same day too? Is it just me resetting the day?” 

Root kept on with the rapid-fire questions to Shaw, who in return just had a baffled expression on her face. 

“We’re in a time warp and all we have is each other.” Root said in a deadly serious tone as she pulled Shaw to her again and cupped her face to stare deeply into her eyes. 

Shaw looked at Root completely bewildered; she turned to Fusco and Reese who stared at Root just as dumbfounded. 

Root could tell by Shaw’s face that she had no idea what she was talking about; in fact she looked super creeped out along with Fusco and Reese. It was too much to hope that Shaw would be repeating the day like she was, or had in the in the past. She let go and backed away from Shaw, wiping a tear from her eye. 

“Root are you feeling okay?” asked a concerned Shaw. “Cause I don’t want to drag your body back to the city if you die here.”

“I’m okay…I think I heard you wrong…or you were just being nice,” Root felt in a daze, she suddenly felt tired; all the excitement and hope leaving her system. “Hey, Shaw. After this, could you maybe train me so I could get better if run into Samaritan agents?”

“You want me to train you?” asked a confused Shaw.

“Yes, Coach Shaw. Please,” Root looked like she might be holding off a few more tears from falling from her eyes, “looks like I’ve got the time.”

Later, after Root actually performed her on-air talent duties in her pink elephant pajama top much to the disapproval of Harold; she found a local gym that had a place for Shaw to train her in combat fighting.

Maybe learning how to fight would help in the warehouse situation. Maybe it was time to start really thinking of the warehouse as a level in a video game that she couldn’t get past. And there were no levels in video games that she couldn’t defeat and move on. As much as she liked wooing Shaw every day, she decided to focus on learning to fight now. At least it still involved spending time with Shaw.

**_Next Day_ **

By end of each day training day with Coach Shaw, Root had never been so sore in every muscle in her body. She was so thankful for the repeating day aspect in regards for sore muscles. If the day hadn’t repeated she knew for certain she wouldn’t be able to walk or move the next day. Every day when she woke up to Beyonce’s ‘Crazy In Love’ and the cat on her chest, thankfully her limbs were free of soreness.

“Again,” Shaw would say every time she knocked Root down on her ass. 

Shaw would stand over with her hands on her hips sweat pouring off her body and all Root could do sometimes was stare at her in awe. Root would struggle to get back up and Shaw would either punch or swift kick her down, then she would go again.

“Again.” Shaw would say in a deadpan repetitive, almost bored voice.

Later, at the warehouse Root would try out some of her new fighting skills, but it was never enough. Most of the days Shaw would die in her arms again. Or they would all get gunned down at the same time and everything would go dark.

**_Another Day Again_ **

“Again.” Shaw stood over Root, who got flipped over roughly then lost her balance, stumbled and smashed her face into a wall. “Keep your eyes open.” Shaw said matter of factly as Root groaned in pain. 

“Maybe I was dreaming of you,” Root flirted back as she mumbled into the concrete wall.

Shaw quickly walked over and very swiftly kicked her leg under Root’s knocking the hacker down again on the floor mat. “Again.”

Later in the warehouse, when Root crawled over and pulled Shaw up into her arms. She cradled Shaw in her arms and held her as tight as she could. 

“Well, that sucked,” Shaw managed to say with little strength left in her body. 

Despite the bullet hole in her leg and shoulder, Root felt like she had a huge gaping hole in her chest while looking down at Shaw. She brushed the hair away from Shaw’s eyes, “Yeah…yeah, it did suck. We’ll try again tomorrow.” Root placed a soft kiss on Shaw’s forehead as the petite primary asset’s eyes fluttered shut. 

**_Another Day_ **

Shaw knocked Root down again; a loud moan was heard as the hacker hit the hard mat once again. Shaw walked over and stood over Root, who then swiftly threw her legs under the petite primary asset, knocked her down and straddled her hips all in a lightning fast movement; because it had been rehearsed several times. 

Root breathed hard and looked down at Shaw, she stared at her lips even harder. Shaw stared back up at Root with a blank look on her face; sweat pouring off of both them. Root continued to hold Shaw down and just stare at her.

“Do I have something on my face?” asked Shaw as she squirmed underneath Root, rubbing slick skin against each other because of all the workout sweat.

Root studied Shaw’s face, each day she noticed something new about her face. Her face was a never-ending breathtaking landscape. 

“Your face is missing my lips,” Root smirked as she leaned down to try and capture Shaw’s lips in a lip lock.

Shaw kicked her leg up hitting Root right in the center where she rolled over and groaned. Shaw smirked as she stood up; she lowered a hand down to pull Root backup to a standing position. Root stood up and then she grabbed her crotch and winced in pain.

“Again.”

**_Another Day_ **

Root staged the ultimate breakfast for Shaw at the diner. There were Shaw’s favorite pancakes, several types of steaks, whiskey and just about anything the petite primary asset has ever said she’s liked or possibly might anticipate wanting to eat or drink. Root made sure the setup looked extremely appetizing before Shaw arrived at the table. She had Doris on stand-by for any necessities that might come up.

Shaw walked cautiously up to the table seeing the massive feast spread out on the table and Root sitting there rather solemnly in her chair. She sat down and Root silently handed her an empty plate. They sat in silence for a few minutes while Shaw chowed down on some steaks and pancakes.

“Are you going to tell me what this is all about?” Shaw motioned to the table spread.

Doris walked up to the table, “How are we doing? Need any more coffee or uh…whiskey?” The waitress asked hesitantly to the two intense women sitting at the table.

“Can’t a couple of gals take a little break from work to catch up? And to eat a large breakfast together?” Root had rehearsed this speech so many times.

“No, we don’t have time.” Shaw took one last sip of coffee, wiped her mouth and pulled her coat back on. “C’mon let’s go to the warehouse,” Shaw got up to leave.

“No, it’s better to stay here,” Root reached out and put her hand on Shaw’s arm to pull her back down to the table.

“Root, c’mon. Let’s go to the warehouse. Do the job so we can get out of this love stinks hellhole town,” Shaw stared into Root’s eyes, there was something there she only saw once before in the hacker’s eyes, a mixture of sadness and fear. She didn’t remove Root’s hand from her arm.

“Sameen, why don’t you stay here. Eat breakfast, I’ll take care of the warehouse and then we’ll leave town together…later,” Root said in a hopeful tone, almost bordering on begging.

“That’s not happening, I do the protecting,” Shaw said sternly.

“I know, you say that every time. And no matter how I try convince you…tie you up or tase you or lure you away with hours and hours of rigorous, mind blowing sex…” Root’s head fell to the table with a loud thud. “…the outcome is always the same. I can’t seem to fix the code.”

“What are you talking about?” Shaw looked completely baffled at Root. “You do almost all of those things to me on daily basis…the tying up and the tasing. Except the uh…sex part,” Shaw unconsciously licked her lips.

Root lifted up her head to stare into Shaw’s eyes. “You almost always end back up at the warehouse, except for the days I tie you up and sit on you. Which you seem to rather enjoy.” Root smiled to Shaw who shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Even during the blinding blizzard, you end back up at the warehouse sometimes.”

“We are wasting time,” Shaw got impatient and readied herself to go. She admitted it was hard tearing her eyes from Root’s big brown, almost teary eyes.

“You go to that warehouse and you die.” 

Root had to look away from Shaw, even though looking at her was one of her favorite things. As time moved on or didn’t move on in her case, it was getting harder knowing the daily outcome. 

“This is as far as you go. No matter what I do, this is as far as you ever make it.” Root’s voice started to crack at this point; she clung harder to Shaw’s arm.

Shaw got angrier and angrier, she tried to stand up to leave but Root was stronger than she looked.

“There’s an ambush waiting for us at the warehouse, they attack us as soon as we enter the building.” 

Root once again pleaded her case and always hoped for a different reaction from Shaw. However, she knew the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

“Get your weapon and get ready to go. Or don’t go at all,” Shaw growled to Root.

“It’s the largest amount of Samaritan agents I’ve ever seen at one location. We never make it out of the warehouse,” Root said, her voice getting louder; not caring she was making a scene.

“I’m going in Root,” Shaw snapped back at Root, her nostrils flaring.

“The only thing we haven’t tried is you leaving Maple tonight. You go back to the city, you wait there until I get back, you’ll be safe there,” Root put both hands on Shaw’s arm now, much to the discomfort of the petite primary asset.

“I’m a soldier, I volunteered. I’m not walking away,” Shaw forcibly grabbed Root’s hands and pulled them from her arm. She stood up and stared down at Root.

“You die here. I can’t save you,” Root stood up to get eye level with Shaw.

“What does it matter what happens to me?” asked Shaw who shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.

“I…I wish I didn’t know you sometimes,” Root turned away briefly holding back tears. With sadness in her eyes, Root stared back at Shaw; she looked down, a wave of pain washed over her. “This is it for you. You die here in Maple.”

“Are these Machine statistics or odds She’s giving you? Well, they’re wrong. I’ll see you back in the city,” Shaw moved to go; then surprised herself by pausing to squeeze Root’s arm.

Root tried one more time, “Sameen, it’s an ambush. As soon as we enter that warehouse Samaritan has hundreds of agents waiting for us…” Root didn’t have the strength to give the speech one more time.

“Never stopped me before,” Shaw said confidently.

“It will this time,” Root reached over and hung onto Shaw’s arm tightly.

Shaw jerked her arm away and stormed out of the diner with everyone looking after her.

**_Next Day_ **

The clock radio hit six in the morning and Beyoncé started up once again. 

Root said very slowly and despondently, “My pride is the one to blame…'Cause I know I don't understand…Just how your love can do what no one else can…Got me looking so crazy right now…” Root turned her head and added, “…don’t forget your booties…cause it’s cold out there…it’s cold out there every day.” 

Root didn’t move from the bed, the cat sprawled out on her chest and snuggled in further.

Root stayed in bed all day that day; the cat was happy.

**_Another Day_ **

Root sat in her pink elephant pajamas with her hair swept up in a messy ponytail in a plush armchair in the living room of The Kitty Napper. She sat watching the quiz show Jeopardy; she had a bottle of whiskey and a bag of Cheetos in her lap. She alternated between taking a big gulp from the bottle and chowing down on orange saturated chips; her fingers were all stained bright orange. Mrs. Lancaster sat next to her and across from them was a full couch, four older people also watching the game show.

Alex Trebek the host of Jeopardy asked a question of the contestants on TV: “This South American lake drains into the smaller lake in Bolivia.”

“What is Titicaca?”

Root answered in a deadpan tone and before any of the contestants on the TV game show could answer. 

Mrs. Lancaster looked over to Root impressed, she nodded to the people on the couch who also looked impressed and nodded their heads. Root looked over to Mrs. Lancaster as she took a swig of whiskey then shoved some Cheetos in her mouth. Mrs. Lancaster in her prim and proper old timey dress stared back a little offended at the display of the younger pajama clad guest.

Trebek asked another question on the TV game show: “This Nobel prize-winning duo were co-discoverers of the DNA molecule.”

”Who are Watson and Crick?”

Root was quick again on the answer before anyone else, she said the answer in a bored monotone. 

Everyone at The Kitty Napper were awed by Root’s ‘intellect’, of course not knowing how many times Root had actually seen this particular episode of Jeopardy. Root looked tired and sad as she sat there spouting off correct answers to the TV game show, binging on junk food and day drinking.

Trebek asked another question on TV: “Beatrice and Benedict play sparring…

“What is Much Ado About Nothing?”

Root answered before the question was finished being asked. She stared intensely at Mrs. Lancaster and she took another swig of whiskey followed by more Cheetos.

Trebek on the TV: “…lovers in what Shakespearean comedy.”

At this point Mrs. Lancaster looked a little more disturbed than impressed. The people on the couch, however, cheered as Root stared at the TV like a tired zombie stuffing Cheetos in her mouth.

**_Another Day_ **

Another cold morning at Cupid’s Knob. Another morning where Fusco, Reese and Shaw waited for Root to show up to finish up their silly cover job. When Root finally wandered over to them, she wore the pink elephant pajamas again under her long peacoat with her hair up in a messy bun. This time she looked like she might have actually wandered away from Stoneridge facility.

“Is it me or does Coco Puffs look more coco loco than usual?” asked a slightly concerned Fusco.

“You look like crap - rough night?” Shaw looked closely at Root. 

Root stared at Shaw with a cold glare and bags under her eyes, “Am I upsetting you sweetie?” she said harshly to Shaw.

“Fine. Let’s do this and get it over with,” Shaw motioned to Fusco and Reese. She moved away from Root and played her part. 

Root stared into the camera with a blank face before she started speaking, a little too long. 

“It’s cold and gray today and it will last the rest of your life. Which is only a few more hours anyway. It doesn’t matter what the squirrel says.” Root then walked closer to the camera and got right up in the lens. “The world is a dark place, and it’s only going to get darker.”

Root dropped the microphone and wandered off into the Valentine’s Day celebrating crowd; she got lost pretty quickly. 

Shaw, Fusco and Reese looked on with confused and slightly concerned faces.

**_Day ?????_ **

Before the third - ♫‘Uh’ in the ‘Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh, no, no’ ♫ chorus part of ‘Crazy In Love’ could finish; Root leaned over and smashed her fist on top of the 80s clock radio, sending plastic pieces falling to the floor.

This action disturbed the cat on her chest so it jumped down off the bed, avoiding plastic radio parts scattered all over the floor.

**_Another Day_ **

Root reached over to the 80s clock radio, picked it up, raised her arm up high and threw the clock radio down as hard as she could to the ground. The clock radio smashed into hundreds pieces.

**_Another Day_ **

Without disturbing the cat on her chest, Root pushed the nightstand over with her hand, knocking off the clock radio and breaking it as it fell hard on the floor.

The cat yawned and went back to sleep.

**_Another Freakin Day_ **

Once again, Root was delivering another misanthropic monologue to the camera in her pink elephant pajamas and messy hair bun when suddenly, she got a wild look in her eyes. 

“There’s only one way to stop Samaritan…the squirrel has to be stopped.” She threw down the microphone to the ground and ran off.

“Did she just say the squirrel needed to be stopped?” Fusco lowered the camera and turned to Shaw and Reese with a scrunched up face.

The three of them were even more confused when Root ran back up to them and grabbed Shaw’s hand and pulled her along.

“Where are we going now?” asked a grumpy Shaw being pulled along by Root through the dense crowd. Whenever they passed a Valentine decoration of sorts, Root reached out to tear it down or punch it.

“To Sammy of course, you’re going to help me,” Root said as she pushed and pulled through the dense crowd of people watching the spectacle of Sammy the squirrel give out his love predictions up on stage.

Shaw rolled her eyes, yet continued to let Root pull her along closer to the stage. Root kept pushing people out of the way, shoving her way to the front of the line for Sammy the squirrel.

“Root wait,” Shaw had a shocked look on her face, “What are we doing? I’m not taking a love test with you.”

“What?” asked a short tempered, exasperated Root to Shaw. “No, I’m just using you to get close to the squirrel,” she scoffed to Shaw then pointed how close they were now to the large psychic rodent. She was solely focused on the squirrel.

Root surged forward, still holding Shaw’s hand. She pulled her all the way up on stage. They got closer to Leslie Thompson and then it was their turn. Root kept pulling Shaw along with her, closer to Sammy the squirrel, the possible key to everything. 

“Don’t you two make an adorable couple,” Leslie Thompson smiled at Root and Shaw. 

Shaw grounded her teeth so hard, she couldn’t believe she let Root drag her up here to take a silly ass love test administered by a squirrel. 

Root kept her eyes focused on Sammy the squirrel; she had a wild look in her eyes. She also never let go of her death grip on Shaw’s hand.

”So exciting, here is your walnut,” said Leslie as she pressed a walnut into Shaw’s hand who looked back at her surprised but tried to hide it. “Go on and give it to Sammy.” 

Leslie instructed to Shaw, who looked to Root but she was only focused on the squirrel. Shaw gently tossed the walnut over to Sammy the squirrel.

“C’mon let’s go,” Shaw mumbled to Root as she watched the squirrel scurry after the walnut, grab it and then dash over to a hole and drop it.

“Another love match!” yelled Leslie into the microphone and the crowd cheered loudly.

Root lunged for the squirrel, scooped it up in her arms then took off running into the crowd.

“Damn it, Root.” Shaw didn’t know if she was more pissed about being picked as a love match by the squirrel with Root or Root running off with the damn squirrel.

Several people in the crowd tried to stop Root, however thanks to all her training with Shaw she was able to dodge them all while still holding on gently to Sammy the squirrel. 

Root managed to evade the authorities to steal a car and speed away with Sammy the squirrel tucked away in her coat. She drove out to the Carrow warehouse; she let Sammy sit in her lap with his paws on the steering wheel, “Don’t drive angry.”

Before she was able to make a plan with Sammy, the Samaritan agents descended upon them as they always do. Root heard one of the agents say on his comm links, “When you shoot at her, aim high. We don’t want the squirrel to get hurt.”

It didn’t take long before everything went dark once again.

**_Another Day_ **

One day Shaw, Fusco and Reese watched with slight discomfort and shock as Root single handily destroyed all the Valentine’s Day decorations in one long Steadicam take in the Maple town square. It was mesmerizing to watch how much damage Root could do before the police hailed her off to jail.

It was quite the spectacle, actually beating out Sammy the squirrel, watching an unhinged, raged filled woman in pink elephant pajamas run around tearing off cupid heads and throwing arrows everywhere. At one point, Root ran up to a man in a heart shaped costume and yelled at him, “I defy you, heart man!” And ripped his costume to shreds.

Root then managed to hit all the game stands and pull out the stuffing of most of the heart bears. Then she somehow managed to break into the main speaker system to serenade the crowd with an off key version of the classic song, ‘Love Stinks’.

**_Next Day_ **

Another day where Root couldn’t help herself from trashing all the Valentine’s Day decorations around the town square except Shaw helped this time due to a dare or more of a threat really from the hacker.

The two women punched, kicked and tore down anything pink, red or heart related. When they ran up on the stage to get a good look at Sammy the squirrel, Shaw grabbed a handful of walnuts to eat later, she then ended up punching a security guard and all the walnuts flew out of her hand and went scattering around the stage. Root was beside Shaw fighting another security guard when it happened and the two women paused and watched as Sammy the squirrel scurried around hurriedly and gathered every single walnut and put them in the love hole one by one. All of them in the love hole.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” yelled a stunned Shaw. 

Root had the biggest, warmest smile beaming at Shaw.

“Wow! That’s twenty plus love match for these two women. Love eternity for these two…uh, highly energized and destructive women,” Leslie Thompson said over the microphone. 

She then put her hand over the microphone when the police officers got closer. “Please, take them away and lock them up. You can put them in the same cell, it is Valentine’s Day after all.”

**_Yet Another Freakin Day_ **

Two double doors in the Carrow warehouse had flown open when Root kicked them in. She waltzed in wearing her pink elephant pajamas, brandishing two guns and shooting down everything that moved. She didn’t have the Machine in her ear, but she had been through this scenario so many times she knew exactly when each Samaritan agent was going to pop up and she was able to fire off and hit them before they took a shot at her or the rest of the team.

Root was in a position today where she died in a section of the warehouse where she had never died before. She heard some of the guards talking about the Sammy the squirrel. Root tried to gather as much information as possible before everything went dark.

**_Another Day_ **

Root sat tired and defeated one morning at the diner, Shaw walked over and sat down next to her.

“What is it Root? We gotta get going,” asked an impatient Shaw as they sat in a booth in the diner.

“I’m a god.” Root said plainly and un-sarcastically. She looked tired. She had on black jeans but was also wearing her pink elephant pajama top under her peacoat.

“You’re a god?” asked Shaw as she rolled her eyes.

“I’m _a_ god. I’m not _the_ God…I don’t think. I mean not like the Machine transcended or something.”

“Why do you think that? Because you survived a few bullets in the shoulder or something? We’ve all survived fatal circumstances, yet we aren’t gods.” Shaw pursed her lips and stared back at Root.

At that moment Doris the waitress walked up to their booth, “You gals ready to order?” Doris held her pen poised over her small notepad ready to write down their order.

“I haven’t just survived some shoulder trauma – I have been stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted and burned…sometimes done by you and sometimes for fun.” Root bit her lip when she looked into Shaw’s eyes.

Doris stood stunned as she heard what Root said to Shaw.

“Why am I not surprised,” Shaw just shrugged.

“And every morning I wake up without a scratch on me, not a dent in the fender…I am an immortal. I am an immortal lesbian.” 

Root laid her hands flat on the table and stared intensely at Shaw. Then up to Doris who remained frozen in spot with her pen in the air.

Doris stood awkwardly listening to this odd exchange between the two intense women. “Special today is blueberry waffles,” said Doris a little nervously.

“Why are you telling me this? Because of the CIA safe house? It’s not like…uh, we’re like each other’s emergency contacts now or something.” Shaw looked down at the table, a little nervously. “Are we?”

“Because I want you to believe in me.” Root reached out for Shaw’s hand. “You’ve always been the person who has believed in me. Actually, the only person…my whole life.” Shaw let Root hold her hand. “I see that now.”

“You’re not a god. You can take my word on it.” Shaw shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

“I can come back if you’re not ready to order?” said Doris, she wasn’t sure the two women were aware she was still standing there waiting for their order. 

“How do you know I’m not a god? I could use my godly powers to smite you right now.” Root pulled her hand away and crossed her arms against her chest. 

Shaw laughed. “Because it’s not possible. This is a multitude of religions talking.” Shaw leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms against her chest. The two women stared at each other as if in a show down.

“I’ll come back,” said Doris as she was about to turn and leave the table. 

Root stood up and gently took hold of Doris’s arm. “Doris, this is Doris. Her brother Carl owns the diner. She’s worked here since she was 17, more than anything in her life she wants to see Paris before she dies.” 

“Boy, would I,” said Doris with a dopey look on face, obviously thinking of Paris and strolling the Seine River. 

Shaw sat in her chair with her arms still crossed against her chest in a very disbelieving mode.

Root stepped over to the next table close by, “This is Debbie and her fiancé Fred. They are supposed to be getting married this afternoon but Debbie is having second thoughts.” Root made a scrunched up face. 

“What?!!” yelled Fred as he looked to Debbie shocked and nearly heartbroken. 

Now Shaw stood up to stare down Root in the face. “Root, the Machine is telling you all this, like the Machine always does. You’re not a god.” 

“No, the Machine stopped talking to me when the blizzard hit. Well, technically it hasn’t hit yet, She hasn’t talked to me since the day started repeating. So actually, She hasn’t talked to me for quite a long time now.” Root said rather glumly with a sad expression on her face. 

Root stopped a waitress walking near them. “This is Sarah, she’s been a waitress here for three years since she left Penn state, she likes the town, she writes Pretty Little Liars fan fiction and she’s gay.” 

“I am,” said Sarah confidently with a smile to Root. 

“She’s got a Yogi Bear tattoo on her hipbone, she’s saving up money to remove it,” Root gave a non-wink to Sarah. 

“Wait, how did you know that?” asked a slightly alarmed and confused Sarah to Root. 

Root gave Sarah a pat on the arm and then stood in front of Shaw. The petite primary asset wasn’t happy with that information. 

Root leaned over to Shaw and whispered, “She did an unsolicited strip tease one day, long story.” 

Root then scooted over to another near by table. “This is Rick, he hates his life, he wishes he would have stayed in the army.” 

Shaw followed behind Root and stood next to the table. “Again, this is trick by the Machine, just feeding you all this information.” Shaw invaded Root’s personal space this time. “Especially that part about that woman’s hipbone tattoo.” 

“Again, unsolicited,” Root smiled at slightly jealous Shaw. 

“It’s the Machine,” Shaw gritted through her teeth, “You’re not a god, the Machine isn’t a god, it just hacks every piece of electronic device, it’s a one parlor trick pony.” 

“Well, maybe the real god uses tricks, you know? Maybe she’s not omnipotent. She’s just been around so long she knows everything.” 

Shaw sighed very loudly. She then pointed to a man sitting at the counter eating. “Well, who’s that?” 

“That’s Tom he worked in the coal mine before they shut it down,” Root said the information so fast, Shaw began to wonder if Root memorized all this stuff because she probably couldn’t be getting it this fast from the Machine. 

Shaw pointed to someone else to keep testing Root. “What about her? And you better not say she’s gay and you got a lap dance from her,” said Shaw with a warning look to Root which only made the hacker smile, her first smile of the day Shaw noticed. 

“That’s Alice, she came over here from Ireland when she was a baby and has lived most of her life here,” said Root so nonchalantly as if Alice was an old friend.

“She’s right!” Alice smiled at Root. 

Root walked onto the next table where a woman sat alone. “That’s Nancy. She works in a dress shop and makes noises like a chipmunk when she gets really excited.” The woman Nancy looked up to Root with a shocked expression. 

“Hey!” Nancy was not happy. 

“Root.” Shaw warned as she stared at Root looking rather not happy herself. 

“I might have used some of this knowledge to set up Fusco a few times, sadly the walls in the Kitty Napper are paper thin,” Root made a slight shiver, “I could hear everything. And well, so did Fusco a few times between us.” 

”What?” Shaw asked in a angry tone. 

Shaw glared at her, however her cheeks got a little red also. Shaw then pulled Root back to their booth and they both sat down again. 

“The Machine is telling you all this stuff. Why are you doing this? Are you doing some weird team initiation thing?” 

“Sameen, the Machine isn’t talking to me,” Root said sadly while staring into Shaw’s eyes. 

“Since when do you call me Sameen?” 

“About the last six months give or take another month…or eight. Sameen…this day just repeats over and over.” Root said the first name again which Shaw scoffed at again. “In about five seconds a waiter is going to drop a tray.” 

Shaw rolled her eyes and exhaled a loud sigh, then pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers. 

“5…4…” Root stated the countdown until the tray would hit the ground. 

“This is nuts. The Machine is telling you the probability that a waiter is going to drop something, judging by the contents on the tray and the amount of grease on this diner floor, it probably has calculated the probability drop rate thousands of times.” 

“3…2…1,” Root counted on then the CRASH hit. The tray hit the floor with a very loud slamming and shattering of dishes. 

Shaw gave out another loud sigh. “What about me Root? Besides the stuff the Machine has already told you about me or the stuff you read in my file, what have you found out in your supposedly god status?” 

Root smiled at Shaw, a warm smile, one that Shaw only seen briefly before a few times and only directed at her. 

“I know all about you. I know every inch of your body. I know every pore. I know every scar. I’ve traced every scar with my fingers…and my tongue.” Root shifted in her seat, thinking of Shaw made her body tingle and fell warm. 

“Root,” Shaw gave the hacker a warning. 

“I know what it’s like to fall asleep in a forced spoon position with you. I know what you smell like after hours of earth shattering sex. I know you make the most adorable face when you enter deep sleep. I know you miss being a doctor sometimes. I know you love Bear, like really love Bear; sometimes you talk about Bear in your sleep. You like the ocean but not necessarily boats. You regret not telling your mom you’re alive. You always thought there was something wrong with you because you don’t feel things the way other people do, but I think it’s what makes you beautiful. You’re an unstoppable force for good, especially involving animals and kids. When the sun sets, sometimes the way you stand on a street corner you look like a Marvel super hero. Or DC super hero, not sure which one is appropriate. You just need a cape.” Root stared adoringly at Shaw. 

“How are you doing this? The Machine really isn’t feeding you this information? Or calculating what I want to hear…I mean…what other people want to hear? I talk about Bear in my sleep?” Shaw’s eyes were darting around the diner. 

“I told you. I wake up every day right here. Here in Maple. And it’s always February 14th and there’s nothing I can do about it. If you still can’t believe me, listen in ten seconds Fusco and Reese are going to come through that door and take you away from me. Please believe me, it’s not the Machine this time. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it is a simulation; maybe I’m not real. Maybe we’re just shapes. Maybe this is one big game on a server in some beautiful cloud called San Junipero on a beach in cyber heaven.” Root’s big, brown hopeful eyes stared hard into Shaw’s confused eyes. 

Root grabbed a napkin and wrote something on it very quickly, then handed it to Shaw. Fusco and Reese walked into the diner right on cue and up to their booth. 

Both men looked between the two women and noticed the charged tension in the booth. 

“Shaw are you ready? I guess you too Coco Puffs? Gotta get moving if we’re going to get ahead of the weather. I call shotgun,” said Fusco as he looked over to the diner counter and eyed the sticky buns in a glass class. 

Shaw looked down and read the napkin that Root had given her; it said word for word what Fusco had just spoken. 

“Sameen…the Machine is precise and all knowing, but She’s not psychic.” 

Shaw looked up to Root with a completely bewildered look on her face. 

Root and Shaw walked out of the diner and left Fusco and Reese eating breakfast there. Root informed Shaw the first order of business was sabotaging the van so the guys couldn’t get to the Carrow warehouse later in the day. After much more discussion, Shaw agreed to hang around Root for the rest of the day. 

“Okay, I’ll stay with you for the rest of day…AS an objective witness, just to see what happens,” said Shaw as they walked down street towards the Maple town square. 

“Gee sounds like a science project. Can you wear a lab coat?” asked Root suggestively. 

“No,” Shaw had already regretted her decision. 

“Glasses?” asked Root as she bit down on her lower lip. 

“For research purposes, how many days end with me shooting you?” asked a slightly annoyed Shaw. 

“Quite a few, 27 to be exact. There are other days were you don’t shoot, but there is a banging involved. A lot.” Root turned her head to stare hard at Shaw.

Shaw rolled her eyes, “I’m going to regret this. How many times has that happened?”

“At least 314 times, I think I lost count after that…” Root looked rather smug with this statistic.

Shaw’s eye nearly popped out, “314? We’ve had sex 314 times?!”

Root almost couldn’t hold down a giggle from Shaw’s reaction, “314 days or so….times, well that number is much higher….maybe around 6,741…” she then shrugged her shoulders.

Shaw dug her hands deep in pockets, not really comfortable with that statistic and she was pretty sure Root was giving her alternative facts. Of course Root was probably making all of this up. 

She continued on with her research questions, “How many times have I killed you?”

Root’s face took on a serious expression, “You haven’t, which actually surprises me every time,” Root can’t help a small smirk on her face; it’s not cocky at all. She honestly can’t believe Shaw hasn’t shot her somewhere lethal.

“You haven’t figured out how to stop repeating the day, but you’ve figured out somehow to kidnap me 314 times? And somehow trick me into having sex with you 314 times?” Shaw stopped walking for a moment and stared at Root. 

“Who said anything about kidnapping and tricking? You are usually a more than willing participant, just like you were that night in the CIA safe house,” Root moved to stand in Shaw’s personal space, her face inches from Shaw’s.

Shaw rolled her eyes and huffed, she didn’t like admitting defeat or weaknesses and the ten hours in the CIA safe house were both of those things. And she hoped she wasn’t showing any signs on how she really wanted to break the 314 record right now, even if Root was wearing a pink elephant pajama shirt at the moment or maybe it was because she was wearing the silly ass shirt.

“Fine,” said Shaw as she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “What is the Machine doing, does it have any theories? Is this a simulation? Can you get the Machine to help you…I don’t know…stop it?”

“Why would I? I’ve gotten to have sex with you for nearly a year and there’s no threat of Samaritan to anyone and if there is then they just respawn and nobody gets hurt. You, John, Harry, Fusco and Bear are safe and okay.” Root reached out and looped her arm through Shaw’s arm. “We get to spend Valentine’s Day together forever. The stupid holiday has actually grown on me, although I have my dark days where I go to the town square and destroy all the decorations.”

“John? Harry? Bear? No more big lug? Safe and okay? Last time I remember you were not that happy with Finch for locking you up in a loony bin and not the biggest fan of Reese’s.”

Root got a sad look on her face. “The original day didn’t go so well. Once I figured out the best possible way to win you over the for day, I just kept up that successful code.”

“I find that impossible to believe that you could ‘win’ me over so many times. I’m not Drew Barrymore in 50 First Dates. And you’re no Adam Sandler,” Shaw scoffed.

Root then leaned over and whispered something in Shaw’s ear, which caused the petite primary asset’s face to turn red, her breathing to quicken and her eyes darken. 

“That’s my secret weapon.” Root pulled back and looked at Shaw.

“Okay…I can see how that…might work,” Shaw said while bringing up her hand to rub her neck in a nervous gesture. She paused for a moment before adding, “Still, don’t you get bored reliving the same day over and over?”

“Did I mention the 314 days you end up on top of me and beneath me, against a wall, on a couch, a few times in the snow – although we did get frost bite. Sadly, never in the shower as there isn’t any hot water on this particular day.” Root had a daydreamey look on her face.

“Yes, but all the other stuff. It doesn’t get boring? Not being able to stop Samaritan?” Shaw looked closely into Root’s eyes. “You look kinda sad."

Root admitted, the repeating days were getting to her. She did get bored sometimes and mostly lonely. She sometimes did amazing things with Shaw and the petite primary asset never remembered anything. Still, she didn’t know what the alternative was, she didn’t know if the days stopped repeating then if they were all just dead and gone. And if her and Shaw would never be friends or anything more.

“You’re here with me, it’s like we are stuck in a time warp and all we have is each other. Plus, everybody is safe here. And if I’m stuck in a loop, I’m sure Samaritan is too. And most days, I sabotage you and the guys into not going to the warehouse, so that’s gotta be a win for us. The days I can’t make that happen are dark days I admit.”

“So we are all doomed to live in this hellhole town for eternity on this silly ass holiday that doesn’t have a good steak house because you can get laid indefinitely,” Shaw growled out to Root.

“Hey, you’re getting something out of it, you seem pretty happy at the end of each day. You’re getting laid indefinitely as well…on most days.” Root smirked back to Shaw.

Shaw hated to admit, it wasn’t an entirely bad eternity. She did really enjoy having sex with Root, if she was being completely honest; she had hoped there would be a few more repeats of the CIA safe house. And if she was brutally honest, she never been with anyone like Root before, maybe the hacker did turn up her volume.

They spent the rest of the day together talking and trying to figure out the predicament. Later, they sat on Root’s bed at The Kitty Napper throwing playing cards into a hat. They both sat with their backs against the headboard, aiming at the hat and the foot of the bed.

“Concentrate Sameen, you gotta want it,” Root giggled throwing another card and having it land perfectly in the hat. “It’s more in the wrist than the fingers, although your fingers are really talented,” Root leered over at Shaw. “C’mon be the hat,” Root continued to coach Shaw.

“It would take me a year to get good at this,” Shaw stared sternly at the hat while she threw another card that missed.

“No six months, four to five hours a day if you want be an expert,” Root nudged Shaw’s shoulder with her own.

“Is this what you do with eternity? Besides wooing me every day like I’m a memory impaired Drew Barrymore character,” asked Shaw as she threw and missed the hat again. 

“Now you know. Among other things,” Root threw another card that landed in the hat; she stopped at looked at Shaw. “That’s not the worst part.” Root got a sad look on her face.

“What’s the worst part?” Shaw looked directly into Root’s eyes, which could be dangerous sometimes; it was very easy to get lost in them; like wading out into a warm gorgeous ocean.

Root sighed and looked down, “The worst part is that tomorrow you will have forgotten all about this. And you’re treat me like the perky psycho again.” Root looked at the rest of the cards in her hands.

Shaw didn’t say anything, she fidgeted with the cards in her hands.

“That’s all right, I am a perky psycho at times.”

“No you’re not. Well, you are….but you’re also extremely talented and brilliant and I think…you could be a valuable asset to the team.” Now it was Shaw’s turn to stare down at her cards in her hands.

“It doesn’t make a difference. I’ve killed myself and died so many times I’m not sure I exist anymore.”

“Sometimes I wish I had nine lives,” Shaw said with a super serious look on her face.

“This has been one of the best days,” Root said softly, carefully looking at Shaw; afraid she might disappear.

“Yeah, it was okay,” Shaw said quickly.

“Maybe, we could do it again?” Root asked shyly to Shaw.

“Sure Root, maybe someday,” Shaw looked over at the old radio clock as it turned over to 12:10am. “You’re still here?” Shaw asked with a very confused face. She then pinched Root hard, which made the hacker yelp.

“Not until 6,” Root shrugged.

“6? You nerd!” Shaw pushed her shoulder against Root’s shoulder.

“I never said midnight,” Root pushed back with a huge smile she couldn’t contain that lit up her whole face.

“You knew I was waiting for midnight,” Shaw put her head back against the headboard and crossed her arms across her chest.

“Does this mean you’re going to leave?” asked Root quietly to Shaw.

Shaw let out a big sigh. “No. I want to see you vaporize at 6,” Shaw slouched down the bed making herself more comfortable. Just then the calico tabby cat jumped up on the bed. “Root why is there a cat in here?”

“This is Simone, she seems to like me,” Simone the cat rubbed up against Root, angling for head and belly scratches.

“Is she here at 6 when you wake up?”

“Yeah, she is,” Root said while petting Simone. “On top of my chest every morning.”

“Did you ever think it was the cat?” Shaw furrowed her brows and squinted at Simone the cat. Simone gave her shade while continuing to get petted from Root.

“A cat put a curse on me?”

“Well, I don’t know…maybe? Let’s put the cat between us and watch it,” Shaw scooted down the bed into a full horizontal position.

Root beamed at this angle; she scooted down as well making sure Simone didn’t jump away. She slightly maneuvered the cat to lay down completely. Root and Shaw both were laying down on the bed and Simone got situated between them after some kneading on the blanket. Root continued to pet Simone who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the attention; Shaw rolled her eyes and started scratching the cat’s head. Now Simone was really enjoying all the extra attention and purring loudly. Root continued petting Simone with one hand and then she gently placed her other hand on Shaw’s hip.

“Root…” Shaw looked into Root’s adoring eyes staring back at her and couldn’t help but get lost in them in briefly.

“I just want to make sure you’re still here too,” Root said somewhat shyly.

“Fine,” Shaw then put her hand on Root’s hip. Root smiled at her and bit her lower lip.

Shaw’s eyes became very droopy, and they closed. Root stared at her, she whispered, “The first time I saw you... something happened to me. I don't deserve someone like you. But if I ever could, I swear I would risk everything to always make sure you’re safe.”

“Did you say something?” Shaw asked a very sleepy voice with her eyes closed.

“Good night, Sameen.”

It didn’t take long for both of them to fall asleep with their hands on each other’s hips and Simone snuggled in between them.


	5. Root reboots

**_Next Day_ **

Shaw, Fusco and Reese were surprised when Root showed up bringing coffee and pastries for them on the cold winter day out in the town square for their fake news coverage. 

“Who wants coffee? Get it while it's hot,” Root beamed over to Shaw, Fusco and Reese.

“Uh, thanks,” said Fusco while taking a coffee from the coffee tray Root held out to him.

“Lionel? Skim milk, two sugars, right?” asked a polite Root to Fusco. 

“Yeah. That’s it Coco Puffs,” Fusco was confused and cautious as he smiled at Root.

“Pastry Shaw?” asked Root as she held out the bag to Shaw. “It’s a maple bacon donut just for you.”

“Uh, thanks,” Shaw said kind of suspiciously of Root.

“Black coffee for you John,” Root handed over a coffee for Reese. “And a Sencha green tea for Harry.” Root went around quickly to the van and handed the tea to Finch.

Root didn’t follow them out to the warehouse, she used the day and many days to really study the town of Maple and it’s residents. What she found out that all over town were irrelevant numbers that needed saving. She wondered how had she not noticed this before? 

Maybe that was the other reason they were brought to this town on this day. There were quite a few irrelevant numbers all across the small town. There was a boy that fell out of a tree every day. There was an old man that collapsed in an alley every night. There was a woman who got hit by a car changing a tire every afternoon. Leslie Thompson herself choked every at lunch and almost died without Root giving her the Heimlich maneuver. The days became pretty full with making sure every number was saved and preventing the team from going out to the warehouse. That was the one piece of code that still eluded Root, after all this time she still couldn’t figure out the key code to the warehouse and getting everyone out alive. 

**_Another Day_ **

Root even found more about Nelly Ryerson after spending a few dinner and lunches getting to know the insurance sales women. Nelly Ryerson was going to be fired if she didn’t make a sale soon and since she was the breadwinner for her family it was pretty relevant for her. So the hacker started signing up every day for all her life insurance policies. Root was pretty sure she could get Shaw to help her if she needed to be ended in many ways or just shot a few times for appearance sake. 

Although, Root could only take so many heart to heart talks with Nelly. One day, after running into Nelly Ryerson again, Root hugged Nelly in a long embrace that went on for too long. Root to throw some twists and fun every day to see the different outcomes. She wrapped her arms around completely and tightly around the annoying woman. 

“I have missed you so much,” she whispered in her ear. “I don’t know where you are headed, can you call in sick?” Root then made circles on Nelly’s back.

Nelly pulled away from Root with a shocked expression on her face. 

“I uh, gotta get going. It’s uh…good to see you Kelly…” Nelly ran as fast as she could across the street, stepping into the large mud puddle in her hurry to get away from Root. 

The hacker had an evil smirk on her face as watched Nelly run away. She has happy for once it wasn’t her boot getting ruined. 

**_Another Day_ **

Root found even more irrelevant numbers in her constant research on the town of Maple. She knew Shaw would take a personal interest in these irrelevant numbers and she hoped to get the petite primary asset once again far away from the warehouse. 

Shaw had been lured away from going to the warehouse because Root said she was in dire need of assistance in saving some important and young irrelevant numbers. 

“Root, what are you we doing?” Shaw asked as they entered a dimly lit building from a back door.

“There are some irrelevant numbers in here. Trust me.” Root smiled over at Shaw, a very warm and genuine look to her eyes. 

Root walked in ahead and turned on a light.

When Shaw looked around she realized where they must be, her interest became more focused. 

“Someone is robbing the animal shelter?”

“Well, someone forgot about one detail in organizing a fumigation of this building. So we need to do some saving.” Root led Shaw through the office and into the back area.

“So who are we saving?” asked a confused Shaw. 

“Them,” Root pointed to round enclosed area where twelve puppies were running around. “The fumigation starts in an hour, so we got to get going.”

Shaw looked at Root with her mouth open a little in surprise. 

“What? Animals need saving too. There are irrelevant and relevant animal numbers,” Root batted her eyes at Shaw. 

Root and Shaw stepped over the gate and sat down in the enclosed area. As soon as they sat down on the floor puppies descended upon them from every direction very happily and very excitedly. The two women were covered in puppies in thirty seconds. Puppies were crawling up on their legs and jumping up on their chests. 

“Root…this one just peed on me,” Shaw picked up the puppy that just peed on her and moved it over to Root’s lap.

“He’s excited to see you,” Root grinned over at her. “I get that excited when I see you, different discharge though.” The hacker gave the petite primary asset a very lascivious look. 

Shaw rolled her eyes at Root and let out a small huff. She picked up two puppies at once that both proceeded to lick her face. 

”Lucky puppies,” Root watched Shaw and the puppies with envy and big heart eyes. 

“And where are we going to take twelve puppies?” asked Shaw who was having trouble keeping a stern face while several puppies climbed all over her legs, licked any exposed part of her skin and jumped up trying to reach her face. Not that she thought about it, Root was a lot like a puppy; they both had very similar actions. 

Root grinned at Shaw and held up a puppy who licked her face all over. 

“I’ve got it all planned, how good are you at smuggling?”

Later, Root and Shaw slowly walked through the hallway and up the stairs of The Kitty Napper with very bulky, bumpy coats that were moving from the inside. And they each had a huge army cargo type bag cradling in their arms that seemed to be very wiggly. They barely made it past without Mrs. Lancaster getting a good look at them. 

When they got inside Root’s room, they both opened their coats and several puppies bounded out happily. They opened the bags and more puppies came running out.

Simone, the calico tabby cat, had been asleep on the bed woke up and watched this clown car situation unfold from their jackets and bags with big eyes. Simone watched curiously as puppies ran around wildly around the room. Simone, however, did remain chill.

After, playing with the puppies for a long time and making sure they all got something to eat, Shaw stood up to leave. Root looked up at her with sad eyes while holding two puppies. 

“Sameen, you can’t go to the warehouse. They need you here,” Root stood up too while holding the puppies and staring into Shaw’s eyes. 

Root gave Shaw her best puppy eyes while holding actually puppies. She lifted two puppies to Shaw’s face that started licking excitedly. 

“The Machine is telling me, tomorrow is a good window to access the warehouse. She’s letting Harold and the guys know too.” Root really wanted Shaw to stay, she needed another break from knowing everybody was going to die tonight. 

Shaw let out a big sigh. She watched all the puppies running around and a small smile escaped past her lips. 

Root pulled Shaw over to the bed. She pushed her playfully on her back, moved all the puppies to the bed where they all clambered, crawled and covered her up. Root crawled in next to them; she leaned on her elbow and watched the puppyfest on Shaw. 

The puppies crawled, chewed and licked Shaw up and down while she smiled the biggest smile that Root had seen yet. The hacker felt herself smiling warmly at the Shaw puppy onslaught. 

Shaw looked up and saw Root’s face with such a sincere look and big soulful brown eyes it made her stomach feel weird, she grabbed Root’s arm and pulled her down into the puppy mayhem. They both played with the puppies until all the little furry creatures fell asleep all curled up with them on the bed. Root fell asleep just as happy as the puppies. Shaw had stayed the whole night with her and the puppies; there was no explosion from the warehouse. She wanted this day again. And again. 

**_Yet Another Day_ **

Root did her old trick of breaking the van so the gang would be stranded for the night in Maple. By the time Root finished her fake on-air report, Reese mentioned once again it was time for them to head to the warehouse. However, the van wouldn’t start, yet once again. Harold tried his best to fix it but for some reason (again) the two auto parts stores in town were both out of the obscure items he needed to restore the engine.

“Harold, we can infiltrate the warehouse tomorrow, She just told me tomorrow is better,” Root lied to Finch, she figured since the Machine wasn’t talking to her, she bet it wasn’t talking to him either.

“What if it’s too late then Ms. Groves?” asked an unconvinced Finch. 

“Oh, trust me, it won’t be,” Root smiled a silly grin at Finch.

“In the meantime, let’s go to the movies tonight,” Root said too much enthusiasm, the guys and Shaw looked at her like she was crazy.

“No, I can clean my guns and do more recon for the mission,” Shaw said quickly. “I’ll go stake out the warehouse all night.”

Snow started coming down heavy now and the temperature was dropping.

“Shaw, there is a blizzard coming, take a break, come see a movie,” Root got closer to Shaw, almost invading her personal space, “There will be tons of popcorn, hot dogs, homemade pickles, all kinds of candy…”

“Okay, fine,” Shaw shrugged and looked up to see a happy smiling Root.

Root instructed the team to meet later that afternoon at the only movie theater in Maple. She had her daily errands of irrelevant numbers to save, plus deposit the puppies in her room and make sure everything was set up so the team would have a memorable movie night they would never remember. 

Later on as instructed, Shaw, Fusco, Reese and Finch stood outside the Maple movie theater looking around for Root. They heard an engine reeved off in the distance and something speeding towards them. Suddenly, the motorcycle stopped right in front of the theater. Root took off her helmet and swung one leg gracefully over the Ducati motorcycle she had been riding. When she got off the motorcycle and stood up, it revealed her whole outfit. Root stood there in a full leather black skintight outfit with a flowing cape wearing black sunglasses; she looked like a sci-fi goddess. 

Shaw felt herself begin to drool in her mouth and in her lower region, moisture pooling heavily in two areas of her body. She shook her head, but it just seemed to intensify the vision of Root in all leather. With a freakin cape for some insane reason. 

Shaw managed to get some words out of her mouth, “Who are you supposed to be? Trinity from the Matrix?” she asked sarcastically to Root, hoping her tone was staying even though she was feeling a bit warm in certain areas of her body. 

“I knew you would be a fan,” Root smiled back and did her trademark non-wink to Shaw. 

Shaw remained blank faced, she didn’t want to let on that she wanted to grab Root and ride off on her motorcycle to some place more private. 

“I’ve got costumes for everybody. Who wants to be the 4th Doctor Who? Han Solo? Captain Kirk? And…” Root walked up to Shaw and stood very close, she could tell her costume was getting a reaction from the shorter woman, “…Batgirl?”

“Solo,” Reese said quickly, Fusco pursed his lips.

“Kirk then,” said Fusco quickly while he looked to Glasses leaving him the other costume.

“The 4th Doctor? Is there a 10th Doctor costume?” asked Finch to Root, he was aware he didn’t sound very dignified at the moment. 

“I’m not putting that on, I’m not parading around this town like a nerd,” Shaw crossed her arms against her chest.

“You won’t be, it’s a private screening tonight just us,” Root raised her eyebrows to Shaw and then the guys.

“You bought out the whole theater?” asked a surprised Shaw.

“Yes, so we could all spend some quality time together and have fun. It’s a double feature, Hackers and War Games,” Root smiled to Shaw and the guys, who all returned less than enthused faces.

“Those are nerd movies,” Shaw whined a bit, but shuffled into the movie theater nonetheless for the food part. “Food better be worth it or I’m bailing.”

**_Next Day_ **

“You bought out the whole theater?” asked a surprised Shaw.

“Yes, so we could all spend some quality time together and have fun. It’s a double feature, Die Hard and Seven Samurai,” Root smiled to Shaw and the guys, who seemed pretty pleased with the selection. Seeing their faces, Root sighed a relief in picking better crowd-pleasing movies. 

Root caught Shaw watching her in the Trinity outfit. Many times.

**_Another Day_ **

Root got better and better at delivering heartfelt speeches as her fake news reporter persona for the silly ass holiday festival crowd; on some days a rather large group would gather around her while she did her fake on-air segment.

“Mahatma Gandi said, ‘Love is the strongest force the world possess, and yet it is the humblest imaginable’…” the crowd hung on Root’s words, well Gandhi’s words, “…and it was Beyoncé who said, ‘How I'm feeling and my pride…is the one to blame…'Cause I know I don't understand…” Root snuck a few glances to Shaw who had her usual blank face, “…Just how your love can do what no one else can, Got me looking so crazy right now, your love's got me looking sooooo crazy right now…in love…’” Root took a breath, smiled warmly into the camera, “This is Sam Connors reporting live from Cupid’s Knob with Sammy the love squirrel.”

The crowd around her cheered and clapped while Shaw, Fusco and Reese looked on surprised and confused.

Shaw looked a little stunned and confused in a good way as she watched Root talk with Finch. As soon as Root looked like she was walking away from the group, Shaw reached out and stopped her. 

“We got some time to kill.” Shaw said to Root, she stuffed her hands in her coat pockets, “Do you want to grab some pancakes?”

“Can I get a rain check for later today? I’ve got some errands to run,” Root smiled to Shaw, and then turned to walk off into the Valentine’s Day celebrating crowd.

“Errands? In Maple? I thought we were leaving right after for the warehouse?” Shaw stared after Root puzzled. So Shaw did what any former ISA operative would do, she trailed Root and watched her the entire day.

Root once again saved the young boy falling from a tree with a massive beanbag chair to break his fall. Off in the distance, Shaw wondered how Root knew the boy was going to fall, then she thought the Machine of course.

“What do you say? You little brat. You have never thanked me once.” Root breathed hard after pushing the massive beanbag chair to make sure the kid didn’t get hurt,” I’ll see you tomorrow,” yelled at the kid as he ran off down the street.

When Shaw heard Root yell at the boy who hadn’t thanked her once, that part was pretty odd. The word once stood out to Shaw, then again this was Root. After, saving the young boy; Shaw followed Root to an alley where she found an old man and took him to a hospital. The petite primary asset was in disbelief watching the so-called former killer for hire saving all these townies. 

Root went about saving and fixing all the other irrelevant numbers in the most efficient manner possible. She made sure the team didn’t go out to the warehouse by sabotaging their car and the local auto parts stores; so just a usual repeating day for Root. The hacker had a new piece of code to try out today. And she was so preoccupied in making sure this new code worked, she actually didn’t notice Shaw following her around all day.

Shaw was pissed but not completely shocked when she saw Root sabotaging their car so it wouldn’t work. She couldn’t figure out what the hacker’s plan was, so she kept following her. 

After hearing one night in the warehouse that one of the guards was despondent about not getting to go to the Valentine’s Day festival, something clicked with Root. The guard had desperately wanted to propose to his girlfriend after getting a love match from Sammy the squirrel. Root started crafting code around this new information. She visited Leslie Thompson many, many times in the mayor's office and finally figured out her code in having the town of Maple recognize a Sammy the squirrel town holiday and having all businesses close to celebrate the festival.

Shaw wondered what angle Root was working after watching the hacker visit the mayor’s office. But then she followed and watched Root have lunch with Leslie Thompson where she saved the woman’s life by giving her the Heimlich maneuver. Then before Root could get too many accolades she was gone off driving down one of the back roads of Maple. Shaw was beginning to think that Root was ditching the town when she stopped to help four older women change their flat tire. Why the hell was she out here changing some random tire? Then suddenly, a massive semi-truck came barreling down the road and Root jumped out of the way. It all clicked for Shaw, Root was just working numbers. Why hadn’t the hacker shared the numbers so she didn’t have to do all of them by herself? Was Root trying to become Maple Person Of The Year or something else Shaw wondered. 

The petite primary asset got the feeling Root caught on to her tailing her eventually because after her fifth irrelevant number, she lost the Root’s trail much to her annoyance and frustration.

Root also had the idea of organizing a singles auction for the Valentine’s Day festival, this would also sway the guards to be at the festival and not the warehouse. After spending so much time in Maple, she knew these people’s code inside and out so it only took a slight tweak every day to get pieces in place. Today was finally the first day where the most code fell right into place, Root did notice the festival was more crowded than on her previous many, many, many nights. 

The festival party was in full swing at Maple’s town community center as the team entered the Valentine’s Day event. Finch had suggested they all go to see if they could spot any Samaritan agents. 

Shaw couldn’t believe she was going to a Valentine’s Day festival party. She was pretty sure Root would be lurking around here somewhere, with her weird new attachment to this town. 

“Where’s Reese?” asked Shaw to Finch as they watched people dance and be merry. 

“Ms. Groves said the Machine gave him an errand and said not to ask any questions,” Finch raised his eyebrows to Shaw and Fusco. “I was a bit worried, however the Machine and Ms. Groves said discretion was key to this errand.” 

Root hacked a message to make it look like the Machine contacted Harold, it took her quite a few attempts to get it right where he didn't suspect anything dubious. And believe it was actually from the Machine and not from Root. 

The three of them looked up to the stage where the band was playing, Fusco started doing a little sway to the music. 

“Where’s Root?” Shaw asked and immediately cursed her brain for asking that question to many times to her teammates. “Did she leave town and expect us to clean up her mess?”

Fusco and Finch looked to Shaw confused. 

“Hey, shorty she’s already here,” Fusco pointed up to the stage where Root was playing the piano in the band. 

The band was really jamming and Root was keeping up, even outshining them. Turned out that Root was quite the accomplished pianist. 

Finch, Fusco and Shaw all looked at Root on stage a bit stunned. The band just ended the jazzy fun song and was taking a breath. 

Root spotted Shaw across the audience and did her non-wink to her and started to play the piano, it seemed only for her. The tune for Darth Vadar’s Death March emanated from the piano as Root smirked to Shaw who in return squinted her eyes at the piano hacker. Shaw walked over to the platform as Root stood up from the piano to exit the stage. 

“So was being in a dorky jazz band one of your covers?” asked Shaw as she crossed her arms against her chest. She did not want to Root to know she was impressed with the piano playing skills. 

Root thought Shaw looked absolutely adorable when she was a little huffy, okay she thought Shaw was hot and adorable all the time. 

“I’m versatile,” said Root as she leaned into Shaw, she had so many successes and failures with the petite primary asset; yet it was still hard to guess which way things would go sometimes. 

The band started playing music again, much to Root’s delight. 

“Can I have this dance?” asked Root with her outstretched to Shaw. 

“No.” Shaw crossed her arms against her chest. 

“Sameen, She says being on the dance floor is a good cover to see everyone and make sure there aren’t any threatening Samaritan agents,” Root smiled intensely at Shaw. 

“So the Machine blackmailing me to dance with you?”

“Maybe a little,” Root smirked and offered out her hand to Shaw to take. “Or maybe she’s like Sammy the squirrel and a good matchmaker.” 

Shaw rolled her eyes and let Root pull her to the dance floor. As Root closed the distance between them, they both slowly looked into each other’s eyes. Root put one hand on Shaw’s and before she could do anything else, Shaw took the lead. 

They started dancing to an infuriating romantic song, Shaw gritted her teeth at her luck. Shaw’s stomach felt a little off, she was hoping it was because she was so hungry and not because she was pressed up against Root. 

Root couldn’t stop smiling, she got Shaw to dance; this had never happened before on any of the days. Shaw was leading, she was gripping Root’s waist tightly and navigating them through the whole dance floor. Root smirked when she realized that Shaw was actually using the dance to scope out all the people at the dance like the Machine, or she told her to do.

Two older woman dancing together came up close to Root and Shaw. 

“Oh you were such a sweet doll to fix our flat, bless you,” one of the older woman said as she reached and gave Root’s arm a squeeze. Root smiled warmly back at the ladies. 

“Fastest jack in Oswego County!” the other woman said to Root while smiling to Shaw. 

The older ladies danced away and before Shaw could make a remark to Root, a man came out of nowhere and grabbed the hacker quickly, placed a quick kiss on her lips then hugged her. Shaw stood there stunned, as did Root. 

“You saved my Leslie’s life, thank you so much Root,” said Leslie Thompson’s husband apparently. He then dashed off and started dancing with his wife, who waved at Root and Shaw. 

And before Shaw could remark yet again, Fred and Debbie from the diner run up to them. 

“Root! You were right! Thank you! And you scored us tickets to Monster Truck Mania! You’re the best!” They both hugged Root then ran off together. 

Shaw felt like she was getting dopey whiplash from all this nonsense. Shaw readjusted her hand on Root’s waist and grabbed her one hand as they started dancing again. 

“How does everyone know you? You’ve only been here today right? You seem like the most popular person in town,” Shaw asked Root very suspiciously. 

Before Root could answer they were interrupted again by a middle aged woman, beaming up at the hacker. 

“Excuse me, thanks for Felix’s back, Dr. Connors. You do work miracles.” She hugged Root and walked off back into the party. 

“Dr. Connors?” asked Shaw with some spite in her tone. 

“It’s an honorary title,” Root looked to Shaw and played up her most innocent look.

“What is going on here? Something is going on. Is the Machine talking to all these people?” The whole thing seemed very weird to Shaw, especially after watching Root save irrelevant numbers all day. Had the hacker truly turned a new leaf, maybe being in the loony bin really did knock some sense into her. 

“Would you like the long or short version?” Root wasn’t sure how much to tell Shaw. Some days Shaw actually believed her or at least humored her, and then on some days Shaw just took off saying she needed to go back to Stoneridge. 

“Let’s start with the short then go from there,” said Shaw tightly her grip on Root’s waist. 

And they were interrupted again, this time by Nelly Ryerson. 

Root smiled at Nelly and turned to Shaw, “Shaw this is my new insurance agent, Nelly Ryerson.” 

“You? With insurance? Isn’t that a waste of money? Counter productive?” Shaw snorted at her own jokes. 

“I haven’t seen this gal in 10 years and she buys everything! She’s so amazing,” Nelly gave Root a big hug before leaving the dancing couple alone. 

“Okay, so I might want the long version,” Shaw said as she held onto Root’s hand and waist, she was unaware the music had actually stopped. They were both staring at each other when the sound system broke them from their thoughts. 

Leslie Thompson was on stage explaining the singles auction. They were asking for volunteers, and a few people went up on stage. 

Suddenly, Doris yelled out, “Get Root up there!” Then Barb and Susie yelled at the same time, “Root! Go on up there honey!” A few other people motioned for the hacker to take the stage. Shaw watched in shock as so many people seemed to be interested in the usual loner hacker, the woman who once told Finch with so much disdain how people were bad code. 

Root awkwardly and shyly walked up on the stage, but not before motioning for Fusco to join her. They both stood on the stage with the other people to be auctioned off. 

Meanwhile, while everybody in town was at the festival either partaking in the singles auction or making fun of it, Root sent Reese out to the warehouse alone to destroy the shipment. The warehouse was actually deserted and Reese used his finesse to destroy everything quietly, quickly and snuck back into town and just in time to see Root and Fusco up on the stage to be auctioned off, which was amusing for the tall primary asset to witness.

“I’ve got ten bucks that says Root is mine!” Sarah from the diner and the yet not removed Yogi Bear tattoo shouted out while pointing at Root. 

Shaw watched this action and didn’t like it. 

“Root Connors you’re up first!” yelled Leslie Thompson in excitement. “All right, what can I get for this fine specimen?”

“Five dollars!” one of the old ladies from the flat tire car yelled. 

Then Sarah yelled out “15!” Already passing her 10 bucks mark. 

“20!” an older man from the back yelled. 

“25!” a rather young looking nerd guy yelled out. 

“30!” Sarah yelled out, she wasn’t going down without a fight.

“35!” The older man yelled out. 

“40!” the younger dude yelled out. 

The three of them went round and round, and back and forth several times out bidding each other. The whole room was getting whiplash watching the rapid fire outbidding over Root. Root stood on stage watching in amusement, she kept glancing at Shaw. 

Shaw watched in utter confusion as the bidding got up to two hundred dollars quickly. 

“You’re not going to bid on her?” asked a stealth Reese who slipped into the party unnoticed even by Shaw. 

“Where the hell did you come from?” Shaw said annoyed, yet kind of relieved to see him alive and not hurt.

The bidding was getting heated over Root. Reese and Shaw continued to watch while the two men and Sarah outbid each other to spend the evening with Root. Shaw mostly watched in puzzlement, while Reese watched Shaw’s reaction. 

“Why would I bid on that perky psycho?” Shaw snapped at Reese. 

“She likes you,” Reese turned to look at Shaw. 

“The woman has tased me twice, tried to burn with me an iron, kidnapped me, zip tied me to many times to count…” before Shaw could finish all the things that Root had done to her, Reese interrupted. 

“I think it’s her way of flirting,” Reese gave Shaw a sly smile with raised eyebrows. “I’m not saying marry her Shaw, just have fun for the night. What are you a nun?”

“Why would you trust her all of sudden?” Shaw rolled her eyes at Reese and let out a big huff of air. 

“I’ve seen a different side of Root today, she figured out how to take down this whole Samaritan facility with not one person getting hurt.”

“What? When did this happen?” Shaw was pissed she didn’t get to be part of the action. “Why didn’t the Machine send both of us?”

“Because the job required a scalpel not a hammer,” Reese teased Shaw. “Plus, Root probably knew you were stalking her all day.” 

“I was NOT stalking her all day,” Shaw was getting really angry with what Reese was saying and the fact that three people were still bidding over Root. 

“Sure sounded like stalking, like the kind you did before when all you wanted to do was shoot her,” Reese with raised eyebrows as if shooting someone was foreplay. 

“Yes, I wanted to shoot her. Nothing more…and not in some sexy way,” Shaw was getting exasperated with Reese and all the chatter of non-stop bidding over Root. 

The bidding went on and on, three individuals all bound and determined they were going to win Root. Shaw felt herself getting angrier and angrier. No one was going to win her perky psycho but her. 

“Six hundred, seventy-four dollars and ten cents!” 

All three bidders and in fact the whole room got quiet for a moment, they all turned to look at Shaw surprised. Then suddenly, there were big claps and woooos from the crowd. 

“Root is sold! To that little lady,” Leslie Thompson pointed at Shaw with a dramatic arm gesture. 

Reese smiled as he looked over at Shaw. Fusco and Finch looked truly shocked. And of course, one high wattage smile beamed out of Root so bright it could almost blow out your retinas. Root then exited the stage trying to hold down her excitement at Shaw actually bidding on her. And not only bidding, but also fierce bidding that rocked her to the core. 

Fusco walked up next on stage strutting his stuff. Finch and Reese looked on in amusement. 

“Okay, next up is this charming man,” Fusco puffed out his chest, bended his arms to show off his little muscles and then mockingly fluffed up his hair. 

“How about a buck and half? 75 cents?” asked a slightly enthused Leslie Thompson. 

“I bid two bits!” yelled one old lady. 

“Sold!” Yelled Leslie Thompson as she pointed to the older woman. 

“I got him!” The older woman was so excited. 

Fusco tried his best to hide his disappointed face. 

Shaw let out a laugh watching her teammate up on stage who had shaking his booty in hopes of getting a high bid and good date. 

“Hey, wanna get out of here?” Root whispered in Shaw’s ear, leaning into her body. 

Suddenly, Root was standing next to Shaw and whispering in her ear. Shaw had to hold down a shiver, despite feeling like her insides were igniting. Root’s voice was warm as her breath and the general closeness of her body. 

“Uh, okay. I hate this stupid ass holiday anyway.”

“Me too,” Root leaned into Shaw and trailed her eyes up and down the petite primary asset’s face, “Although, it has grown on me…like a mold.” 

Shaw followed Root into the crowd and out in the streets. They wandered to the edge of the town square where Root had a block of ice set up and a small table of tools. Shaw looked on very puzzled. 

“Root what the hell are you doing?”

“You said you were looking for an ice sculptor, so just sit and wait,” Root instructed Shaw to sit down on a stool.

”When did I say that?” Shaw didn’t remember saying it, but she might of to get rid of someone. 

”You said it awhile ago,” Root concentrated on her ice and didn’t look at Shaw. 

Shaw would sometimes throw out an impossible list of standards to go on a date with her. Somehow Root must have gotten a hold of the list. She admitted the list of requirements for a date with her were completely false, yet she was curious to see what the hacker could do with a block of ice. 

After some time had passed, Shaw finally asked Root, “How long do I have to sit here? I’m going to turn into a block of ice.”

“Just a bit more…” Root picked up a different tool, made some chisels, “Okay, it’s done.” The hacker studied the ice and made a few adjustments.

Shaw looked at the ice sculpture; it was almost exact replica of her face. The resemblance was uncanny almost. 

“Uh…How did you do that?”

“I know your face so well, I could have done it with my eyes closed,” Root smiled at Shaw as she put away her tools.

“It’s not bad,” Shaw stood in front of her ice version, studying the details.

“تشکر از شما با مهربانی,,” said Root to a very surprised Shaw. 

Shaw nearly fell off her stole, did Root just speak Farsi to her? She wondered, what the hell was going on?

“Oh, look at what I got today, I passed my test,” Root showed off her black belt in jujitsu to Shaw. “Wanna go sparring?” The hacker asked in a very suggestive tone.

Root had spent months in training with the only teacher in town working towards getting her black belt, it was a long arduous process, however, worth it now seeing Shaw’s surprised face. 

Shaw’s head was spinning a little; today she was seeing a completely different side to the perky psycho. A really, almost fantastical side. 

“Sure, why not.” Shaw couldn’t believe that came out of her mouth. She really did want to see how Root might be on the mat. 

They ended back at Root’s room, Shaw knew that there was only one kind of sparring either of them wanted to do; the naked kind of sparring. Root had not been subtle all night, she was about as smooth as a . 

As soon as they entered Root’s room they were greeted by twelve puppies and a non-greeting by a cat laying on the bed. 

“So I haven’t gotten to taming feral animals yet, I’m starting with puppies and a housebroken cat named Simone.” Root said to Shaw, who look perplexed as if she was a part of a conversation she didn’t know she was a part of.

Shaw noticed all the Valentine’s Day stuffed heart bears littering the room and boxes of chocolates piled up on the nightstand. 

“Those are from Mrs. Lancaster, she’s a sweet lady.” Root saw Shaw looking at all the Valentine’s Day stuff warily. 

By the time Root and Shaw got all the puppies to potty and eat, it had gotten quite late. Root stretched out on the bed fully clothed, she felt exhausted with a happy warm glow just looking at Shaw. 

Shaw stood there for a few moments looking down at Root, then watched as almost all the puppies scrambled or whined to get on the bed. Shaw lifted any puppy that wanted up on the bed. Then she kicked off her shoes and crawled up on the bed too. Root was already almost asleep. She stared at Shaw with dreamy eyes as if the petite primary asset was really a dream. Shaw stared back at her until it got too uncomfortable; thankfully a puppy had scrambled up to her face and started licking her nose. When she looked back over to Root, the hacker was fast asleep. 

**_The Next Day_ **

Root started getting lulled out of her deep sleep by a pressure she felt on top of her chest, as usual. She heard the familiar, ♫‘Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh, no, no♫’ and then before Beyoncé could sing her next big line, ‘♫Got me looking so crazy right now, your love's got me looking so crazy right now in love…♫’ the song was cut off. 

Root opened her eyes immediately, she was afraid to move; something was different. Simone was still on her chest so maybe the clock radio just broke after all this time? Then Simone shifted in a way that felt very odd and the pressure felt heavier.

“You don’t make the worst pillow,” Shaw said as she rolled over onto an actual pillow and off of Root.

Root sat up in bed immediately with a wild look in her eyes and even wilder hair. There were fifteen pairs of eyes staring at her if you counted Shaw, Simone and the twelve puppies.

“Something is different,” Root stared at Shaw like she hadn’t seen her in years, her face breaking out into a huge grin and shaking her head.

“Besides the twelve puppies in one room,” asked a still sleepy Shaw. “And you’re lucky I’m still here. I stayed for them,” she motioned to the puppies. 

“Anything different is good. But this could be real good,” Root continued to grin uncontrollably. And before she lost the chance or nerve she leaned over Shaw still laying on her back and kissed her hard and sloppy.

Root pulled back and looked into Shaw’s eyes, “Why are you here?”

“I bought you, I own you.” Shaw said with a smirk. 

“Why are you still here? Here.” Root didn’t want to get too excited that today might finally be a new day, but it looked it might finally be over. And she was shocked that Shaw would sleep in her bed all night. Sleeping had not been part of their fun before in the CIA safe house or in Maple. 

“I didn’t get my money’s worth last night.” Shaw sat up in bed staring a completely bewildered, yet overly excited Root. 

The puppies in the room started waking up and getting excited too, half was potty time excitement the other half was breakfast time excitement. 

“I stayed mostly for them. I didn’t want you to be bad influence on these guys like I see you are with Bear,” some of the puppies scrambled up and started climbing all over both of them.

Root leaned over and kissed Shaw again hard. <.p>

“It’s finally tomorrow.” Root continued to kiss Shaw; she moved her lips and kissed up and down Shaw’s neck. 

“Root…mmmm…why weren’t you like this last night? You just fell asleep on me,” Shaw said trying to hide her disappoint from last night. “Literally right on me.”

“It was the end of a VERY long day. Is there anything I can do for you today?” Root asked in the most lascivious way possible. 

Root pushed Shaw back to lay on the bed as she kissed her neck, sucking and biting up and down the length and dipping lower. She moved back to capture Shaw’s mouth in a hungry kiss; she barely had the chance to make the kiss deeper when some of the puppies saw this as a new game and pawed at their faces.

“Mfff…mmffff….Root,” Shaw didn’t want to take her mouth off Root’s mouth yet she was getting trampled on by a lot of puppies. “There’s a lot of energy in here. I think a lot of them need to use the bathroom.” 

Several of the puppies raised their heads and looked at Shaw, they tilted their heads much in the very same way Root does to Shaw. The petite primary asset shook her head the sight of puppy parallels.

Root and Shaw surveyed the room, the puppies had torn up all the heart bears laying around, white stuffing was everywhere. There were several boxes of chocolate candies on the nightstand, out of reach of the puppies thankfully. Root reached over on her elbows, grabbed a box and offered some traditional silly ass chocolate to Shaw.

“Appetizer before pancakes,” Root bit a chocolate in half, as did Shaw. “Yuck, I got caramel.”

“Yuck, I got coconut,” Shaw said with a scrunched up face after she bit her piece in half. 

They looked at each and shrugged, they put their halves in each other’s hand then put them in their own mouths and ate them, they both shrugged content with the other halves. 

“We should be getting back to the city,” Shaw moved some puppies so she could stand up.

Suddenly, Root’s face took on a whole new faucet, her eyes glazed over. Shaw knew that look, the Machine was talking to it’s analog interface.

“Well, hello there,” Root nodded several times, “Understood, we’ll be on our way shortly.”

Shaw watched her while alternating between rubbing several different puppy bellies.

“Sameen, it’s all taken care of, the Machine just found twelve homes for these guys,” Root picked up a puppy and stood up next to Shaw. “Wanna go tear down some Valentine’s Day decorations? Possibly free Sammy the squirrel before we leave Maple?”


End file.
